12 Books by Black Chicago Women 2025

blackgirlsreadchi Host

36 participants (43 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
Remote Control by Nnedi Okorafor

Remote Control

Nnedi Okorafor

4 hours, 7 minutes • audio • 2021

fiction science fiction adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced
Ironheart, Vol. 1: Those with Courage by Eve Ewing

Ironheart, Vol. 1: Those with Courage

Ironheart (2018) #1

Eve Ewing

136 pages • paperback • 2019

fiction comics young adult adventurous medium-paced
A Season of Light by Julie Iromuanya

A Season of Light

Julie Iromuanya

7 hours, 43 minutes • audio • 2025

fiction literary medium-paced
Broken Places by Tracy Clark

Broken Places

Cass Raines #1

Tracy Clark

12 hours, 58 minutes • audio • 2018 user-added

fiction crime mystery dark mysterious tense fast-paced
I Done Clicked My Heels Three Times by Taylor Byas

I Done Clicked My Heels Three Times

Taylor Byas

1 hour, 51 minutes • audio • 2023 user-added

nonfiction poetry challenging emotional reflective medium-paced
1919 by Eve L. Ewing

1919

Eve L. Ewing

1 hour, 5 minutes • audio • 2019

nonfiction history poetry race emotional informative reflective fast-paced
From #BlackLivesMatter To Black Liberation by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor

From #BlackLivesMatter To Black Liberation

Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor

10 hours, 45 minutes • audio • 2016

nonfiction history politics race informative reflective medium-paced
The Mayor of Maxwell Street by Avery Cunningham

The Mayor of Maxwell Street

Avery Cunningham

508 pages • hardcover • 2024

fiction historical emotional reflective slow-paced
Hide by Tracy Clark

Hide

Detective Harriet Foster #1

Tracy Clark

380 pages • paperback • 2023

fiction crime mystery thriller dark mysterious tense medium-paced
The South Side: A Portrait of Chicago and American Segregation by Natalie Y. Moore

The South Side: A Portrait of Chicago and American Segregation

Natalie Y. Moore

272 pages • hardcover • 2016

nonfiction history politics sociology challenging informative reflective slow-paced