Yaa Gyasi's Reading List

"Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments, by Saidiya Hartman left me awe-struck and grateful. I don't think I've ever read anything like it — radical, rigorous, lyrical, attentive."

"It's unnervingly prescient and wise. A worthy read for those intent on building a better world."

"It's such a brilliant, layered novel about a young woman coming of age, rooted in her family but growing up to be something all her own."

"A novel that eschews easy answers."

"For comfort, I like to revisit Good Woman, by Lucille Clifton. The copy I've had since I was 17 is so dog-eared and underlined that, at some point, I realized I just love every word, every page."

"Heads of the Colored People, by Nafissa Thompson-Spires."

"Homie, by Danez Smith, an absolute joy of a book."

"Go Tell It on the Mountain, by James Baldwin, was the first book I read that spoke to that part of my life and it moved me so deeply to see faith rendered on the page with such care and brilliance."