POC and Poetry

This year as part of my 2015 resolutions I am posting more post about POC authors and characters.  This has been a fun and great idea for me and my blog because I get a chance to show off a few authors and books that don't get that much time in the spotlight.  

Since April is National Poetry Month I thought I would highlight a few books of poetry by POC authors.  Feel free to join me and post a something on your blog about as well. 

What is POC?

Well, basically it stands for Person of Color.  All Colors! All non-white races are counted as POC.
Previous POC posts
POC Books I Want to Read This Year
POC Children Books
Favorite Female POC Authors
Favorite POC Books from 2014

Click on the covers to go to the books Amazon page.

~ Poetry Books By POC Authors ~

Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine
National Book Award Finalist
#1 Best Seller in Amazon's African American Poetry

Accounts of racially charged interactions, insidious and flagrant, transpiring in private and in the public eye, distill the immediate emotional intensity of individual experience with tremendous precision while allowing ambiguity, ambivalence, contradiction, and exhaustion to remain in all their fraught complexity. . . . Once again Rankine inspires sympathy and outrage, but most of all a will to take a deep look at ourselves and our society. (Publishers Weekly, starred review)

My Favorite Male POC Authors

Today I thought I would show some love to the male P.O.C. authors who have never ever let me down.  These are the six five "go to" authors I will always get a good read from no matter what.  Some of them I haven't read in a long time and a couple are newer discoveries.  Disclaimer time!  There are more than five P.O.C. authors in my reading collection but I wanted to feature the top ones who have stood the test of time in my reading life.  Also they are in no particular order.

By the way, in case you missed it I am doing a bi-weekly post on this blog to feature books and authors that are P.O.C. (people of color) to give them all a bit more time in the spotlight and I would love, love for you to join me. (The covers are linked to the Amazon.com page and bios are from Goodreads.com)

Richard Wright

Richard Nathaniel Wright was an African-American author of powerful, sometimes controversial novels, short stories and non-fiction. Much of his literature concerned racial themes. His work helped redefine discussions of race relations in America in the mid-20th century.

Books by Richard Wright

Favorite Female POC Authors

Today I thought I would show some love to the P.O.C. authors who have never ever let me down.  These are the six "go to" authors I will always get a good read from no matter what.  Some of them I haven't read in a long time and a couple are newer discoveries.  Disclaimer time!  There are more than seven P.O.C. authors in my reading collection but I wanted to feature the top ones who have stood the test of time in my reading life.  They have amazed me more than once and they have enhanced my love of reading from early on.  Also they are in no particular order. 

By the way, in case you missed it I am doing a bi-weekly post on this blog to feature books and authors that are P.O.C. (people of color) to give them all a bit more time in the spotlight and I would love, love for you to join me. (The covers are linked to the Amazon page)

 Tananarive Due

Tananarive Due is a novelist and a creative writing teacher who has worked as a journalist. She won the American Book Award in 2002 for her novel The Living Blood. (from Goodreads)

Diversity on the Shelf: Approved Books pt. 9

 

Inspired by POC Reading Challenge

Are you a participant of the Diversity on the Self 2014 Reading Challenge (aka D.O.T.S.)?  Did you have a goal this year to read more books by People of Color?  How are you doing?  

Just in case you aren't hitting your goal or just want to find a few new titles to add to your collection here are what I like to call "Diversity Approved Books".   All of these books are by a person of color OR have a main character of color.  

Sometimes these books don't get the love they should and hearing about them is so very rare.

You can see other books and review link ups by clicking one of the links in the side bar menu under the D.O.T.S. reading challenge button.

By the way, it's not to late to sign up.  Click the reading challenge button and link up your sign up post.  Non bloggers are welcomed too.

Diversity on the Shelf: Approved Books pt. 2

 

Inspired by POC Reading Challenge

All of the participates of the Diversity on the Self 2014 Reading Challenge (aka D.O.T.S) are doing an amazing job of reading, reviewing, and linking up books by People of Color.  

You can see the books and linky here

January Review Link Up
February Review Link Up

Today, I thought I would give you 12 more books in various genres and release dates that are...what I like to call "Diversity Approved Books".  All of these books are by a person of color or have a main character of color.  And since I am hosting this reading challenge I think I will do this monthly.  Yes, you will get 12 titles once a month. 

Sometimes these books don't get the love they should and hearing about them is so very rare.

Diversity on the Shelf: Approved Books Pt. 1

Diversity on the Shelf: Approved Books

Inspired by POC Reading Challenge

I love a great story and before I started blogging I never really payed much attention to authors.  But when I started book blogging, the lack of diversity was...overwhelming.  One of the reasons I wanted to do this reading challenge was to give book bloggers an opportunity to experience a few new authors and try something new.  I understand the mind set of going for what you know but diversity brings such a deep understanding into a culture and it's people and that spreads tolerance.  

I thought it was odd that so many book bloggers and readers would sign up for a reading challenge with an outside your box theme and they would never ever read a book by an author outside their race.  Reading a non-fiction book and a graphic novel all by authors within their own race was not (in my eyes) outside their box.  

To help the participates of the Diversity on the Shelf 2014 Reading Challenge (and to spread some diverse book love), I thought I would give you all a few titles each month to check out.  All of these books will fit perfectly into this reading challenge.  I will try to add a variety of genres (YA, Non-fiction, Historical Fiction, Mystery) for you to cross challenges as well.

~ Approved Diversity Books ~  

Google Celebrates an Author of Color

Google completely surprised me today.  If you haven't noticed, when you use Google.com to search there is usually a new Google icon in the upper left hand corner.  The icons change in celebration of holidays, famous events, and did you know kind of things.  They also celebrate famous people too.  Today, Google is celebrating a famous African American Author's birthday.  

Zora Neale Hurston