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
I Done Clicked My Heels Three Times by Taylor Byas

I Done Clicked My Heels Three Times

Taylor Byas

1h 51m • 2023 • 3 editions

user-added

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

1919

Eve L. Ewing

1h 5m • 2019 • 7 editions

nonfiction history poetry race emotional informative reflective fast-paced
A Season of Light by Julie Iromuanya

A Season of Light

Julie Iromuanya

256 pages • 2025 • 4 editions

fiction literary medium-paced
Last Summer on State Street by Toya Wolfe

Last Summer on State Street

Toya Wolfe

224 pages • 2022 • 13 editions

fiction contemporary emotional reflective sad medium-paced
The Mayor of Maxwell Street by Avery Cunningham

The Mayor of Maxwell Street

Avery Cunningham

508 pages • 2024 • 5 editions

fiction historical emotional reflective slow-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 • 2016 • 6 editions

nonfiction history politics sociology challenging informative reflective slow-paced
We Are the Culture: Black Chicago's Influence on Everything by Arionne Nettles

We Are the Culture: Black Chicago's Influence on Everything

Arionne Nettles

224 pages • 2 editions

nonfiction history race medium-paced
Noor by Nnedi Okorafor

Noor

Nnedi Okorafor

214 pages • 2021 • 4 editions

fiction science fiction adventurous tense fast-paced
The Night Masquerade by Nnedi Okorafor

Binti #3

The Night Masquerade

Nnedi Okorafor

208 pages • 2018 • 14 editions

fiction science fiction adventurous fast-paced
Home by Nnedi Okorafor

Binti #2

Home

Nnedi Okorafor

160 pages • 2017 • 18 editions

fiction science fiction adventurous emotional fast-paced