20 Literary Theory Books by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) Authors

Every month Book Club for Masochists: A Readers’ Advisory Podcasts chooses a genre at random and we read and discuss books from that genre. We also put together book lists for each episode/genre that feature works by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) authors. All of the lists can be found here.

• In Theory: Classes, Nations, Literatures by Aijaz Ahmad
• Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin
• The Art of Death: Writing the Final Story by Edwidge Danticat
• The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of African-American Literary Criticism by Henry Louis Gates Jr.
• The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable by Amitav Ghosh
• Why Indigenous Literatures Matter by Daniel Heath Justice
• Ex-Libris: 100+ Books to Read and Reread by Michiko Kakutani
• Who Will Pay Reparations on My Soul? by Jesse McCarthy
• Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination by Toni Morrison
• The Origin of Others by Toni Morrison
• The Rise of the African Novel: Politics of Language, Identity, and Ownership by Mũkoma wa Ngũgĩ
• Black Ink: Literary Legends on the Peril, Power, and Pleasure of Reading and Writing edited by Stephanie Stokes Oliver
• Imaginary Homelands: Essays and Criticism 1981-1991 by Salman Rushdie
• Curry: Eating, Reading, and Race by Naben Ruthnum
• Bodyminds Reimagined: (Dis)ability, Race, and Gender in Black Women’s Speculative Fiction by Sami Schalk
• In the Wake: On Blackness and Being by Christina Sharpe
• Changing My Mind: Occasional Essays by Zadie Smith
• The Dark Fantastic: Race and the Imagination from Harry Potter to the Hunger Games by Ebony Elizabeth Thomas
• Shapes of Native Nonfiction: Collected Essays by Contemporary Writers edited by Elissa Washuta and Theresa Warburton
• The Risk Theatre Model of Tragedy: Gambling, Drama, and the Unexpected by Edwin Wong