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
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 • 15 editions

fiction science fiction adventurous fast-paced
Home by Nnedi Okorafor

Binti #2

Home

Nnedi Okorafor

160 pages • 2017 • 19 editions

fiction science fiction adventurous emotional fast-paced
A Political Education: Black Politics and Education Reform in Chicago Since the 1960s by Elizabeth Todd-Breland

A Political Education: Black Politics and Education Reform in Chicago Since the 1960s

Elizabeth Todd-Breland

344 pages • 2018 • 2 editions

nonfiction education challenging informative reflective slow-paced
Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision by Barbara Ransby

Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision

Barbara Ransby

496 pages • 2003 • 5 editions

nonfiction biography feminism politics race challenging informative inspiring slow-paced
South Side Girls: Growing Up in the Great Migration by Marcia Chatelain

South Side Girls: Growing Up in the Great Migration

Marcia Chatelain

264 pages • 2015 • 3 editions

nonfiction history race challenging informative inspiring slow-paced
Black Girl Magic by Jamila Woods, Idrissa Simmonds, Mahogany L. Browne

Breakbeat Poets #2

Black Girl Magic

Jamila Woods, Idrissa Simmonds, Mahogany L. Browne

264 pages • 2018 • 4 editions

nonfiction lgbtqia+ poetry emotional reflective medium-paced
Negroland by Margo Jefferson

Negroland

Margo Jefferson

248 pages • 2015 • 17 editions

nonfiction history memoir race emotional informative reflective slow-paced
I've Got to Make My Livin': Black Women's Sex Work in Turn-Of-The-Century Chicago by Cynthia M. Blair

I've Got to Make My Livin': Black Women's Sex Work in Turn-Of-The-Century Chicago

Cynthia M. Blair

322 pages • 2010 • 3 editions

nonfiction gender history challenging informative medium-paced