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It’s been a little while since I did a compilation of interesting BIPOC lit and lit adjacent news. For this week’s iteration, I’m sharing a dope list of books, documentaries, and other projects that give a lot of context to Ryan Coogler’s record-breaking hit Sinners, a Canadian poet-turned-author who won a big (cash) award, a Japanese American art during WWII imprisonment exhibit, and more.
I’m currently writing my own list of books to read if you liked the current sensation that is Sinners, and came across this fab resource by Trey Walk. When I write lists that are centered around a particular theme, I always try to check to make sure I’m not repeating what others have already said, hence my coming across this list.
What I like about Walk’s compilation is how it compartmentalizes different major aspects of the movie and gives reading recommendations to better understand the historical significance of each thing. Under “BLUES MUSIC AND THE JOOK JOINT,” he recommends a photography project; under “THE MISSISSIPPI DELTA,” Cotton and Race in the Making of America: the Human Costs of Economic Power by Gene Dattel; under “BLACK RELIGION – HOODOO AND CHRISTIANITY,” Mules and Men by Zora Neale Hurston; and under “RACE, IDENTITY, AND HISTORY,” How the Irish Became White by Noel Ignatiev; among other things.
For the full list, check out his Substack post.
Canadian poet Canisia Lubrin has won this year’s Carol Shields Prize for Fiction—which awards women and nonbinary writers in the US and Canada—as well as the $150,000 that comes with it (whew).
Her winning work was her 2024 debut fiction release, Code Noir, a short story collection of 59 stories that examine topics like Louis XIV’s “Black Code”—which established the rules of slavery in France and its colonies.
The prize’s judges said, “The stories invite you to immerse yourself in both the real and the speculative, in the intimate and in sweeping moments of history. Riffing on the Napoleonic decree, Lubrin retunes the legacies of slavery, colonialism and violence.”
For more on the award, visit NPR.
While this exhibition is not explicitly about literature, it offers insight into how Asian American creatives were affected by the US government’s decision to imprison them during WWII.
The exhibit—”Pictures of Belonging: Miki Hayakawa, Hisako Hibi, and Miné Okubo”—is on display in the Smithsonian American Art Museum in DC. In addition to carving out space for us to consider different aspects of Japanese imprisonment, the exhibit also seeks to give the three women artists their flowers for their great contributions to 20th-century American art.
To learn more about the exhibit, visit the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Book Clubs
**All-Access subscribers continue below for 15 BIPOC books out this week**