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12 Books by Black Chicago Women 2025

blackgirlsreadchi Host

37 participants (50 books)

01 Jan 2025—31 Dec 2025

Overview

Join us for the 12 Books by Black Chicago Women Reading Challenge for 2025! 

Whether you participated in the inaugural challenge or are participating for the first time—welcome! This year, let’s continue to celebrate the depth, diversity, and dopeness of Chicago’s Black women writers. Read at least 12 books by Black women from Chicago. The books can be in any genre, on any topic, and from any time period. 

Follow along here and on our Instagram page @blackgirlsreadchi, and use the hashtags #12BooksByBlackChicagoWomen and #12BooksByBlackWomenChi to share your progress. 

If you need a few more suggestions to get you started, check out our book list on Bookshop.org.

Challenge Books

All books added
Resting Bitch Face: Poems by Taylor Byas

Resting Bitch Face: Poems

Taylor Byas

256 pages • 2025 • 1 edition

nonfiction poetry
The Unfortunates by JK Chukwu

The Unfortunates

JK Chukwu

301 pages • 2023 • 10 editions

fiction lgbtqia+ literary challenging emotional reflective medium-paced
Don't Go: Stories of Segregation and How to Disrupt It by Tonika Lewis Johnson, Maria Krysan

Don't Go: Stories of Segregation and How to Disrupt It

Tonika Lewis Johnson, Maria Krysan

286 pages • 2024 • 2 editions

nonfiction sociology
Southern Horrors and Other Writings: The Anti-Lynching Campaign of Ida B. Wells, 1892-1900 by Ida B. Wells

Southern Horrors and Other Writings: The Anti-Lynching Campaign of Ida B. Wells, 1892-1900

Ida B. Wells

1h 4m • 2020 • 5 editions

user-added

nonfiction history race challenging informative reflective medium-paced
Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor

Death of the Author

Nnedi Okorafor

16h 12m • 2025 • 18 editions

fiction literary science fiction thriller adventurous emotional reflective medium-paced
Broken Places Outer Spaces: Finding Creativity in the Unexpected by Nnedi Okorafor

Broken Places Outer Spaces: Finding Creativity in the Unexpected

Nnedi Okorafor

2h 18m • 2019 • 6 editions

nonfiction memoir challenging reflective slow-paced
The Life of Herod the Great by Zora Neale Hurston

The Life of Herod the Great

Zora Neale Hurston

334 pages • 2025 • 7 editions

fiction classics historical reflective medium-paced
Remembrance by Rita Woods

Remembrance

Rita Woods

15h 2m • 2020 • 6 editions

fiction historical magical realism adventurous challenging emotional slow-paced
Upstate by Kalisha Buckhanon

Upstate

Kalisha Buckhanon

5h 45m • 2004 • 5 editions

user-added

fiction romance young adult emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced
Saving Ruby King by Catherine Adel West

Saving Ruby King

Catherine Adel West

10h 13m • 2020 • 5 editions

fiction mystery emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced