12 Books by Black Chicago Women 2025

blackgirlsreadchi Host

31 participants (34 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
The Best That You Can Do by Amina Gautier

The Best That You Can Do

Amina Gautier

256 pages • first pub 2024 (editions)

fiction short stories challenging reflective medium-paced
Maud Martha by Gwendolyn Brooks

Maud Martha

Gwendolyn Brooks

192 pages • first pub 1953 (editions)

fiction classics literary poetry reflective fast-paced
I Done Clicked My Heels Three Times by Taylor Byas

I Done Clicked My Heels Three Times

Taylor Byas

108 pages • first pub 2023 (editions)

nonfiction poetry challenging emotional reflective medium-paced
Original Sins: The (Mis)education of Black and Native Children and the Construction of American Racism by Eve L. Ewing

Original Sins: The (Mis)education of Black and Native Children and the Construction of American Racism

Eve L. Ewing

400 pages • first pub 2025 (editions)

nonfiction history race