For Black History Month, Galatea authors share the Black writers who inspire them
To celebrate Black History Month, the Galateam surveyed our authors to discover their favorite Black writers. The responses range from Maya Angelou’s classic I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings to Kimber Lee’s steamy romance Jack the Panty Ripper, demonstrating one of the things we love most about the Inkitt/Galatea world: sincerely passionate writers and readers with a broad range of tastes and experiences to share.
The New Species series
by Laurann Dohner
The new species series by Laurann Dohner has thirteen stories in total and each story uniquely talks about the journey of a new species on their quest of not just finding love but finding a space in the world where they belong, refusing to accept what the world has told them to be, defining their own destiny and against all odds fighting for each other. This is what I love most about the New Species series.
I love how the author carries her audience into the world of multicultural existence regardless of the fact that is fictional. It makes one wonder how far we human beings have come.
Jake the Panty Ripper, Sin City, and Branded
by Kimber Lee
I love the reality of her characters and their personalities. I can always relate. Her stories hold me and are lingering. Love them.
She’s South African, which is so awesome. I’m Jamaican.
Truly
by Carmel Rhodes
I’ve always loved dark romance books and most of the ones I’ve read have always featured white characters which I don’t have a problem with. It was so refreshing to read about a girl who looks like me. Being one of my favorite subgenres is an added bonus.
Carmel Rhodes is amazing. After reading that book it inspired me as a Black author to write more books that I feel passionate about featuring a Black girl main character.
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
by Maya Angelou
The fact this author doesn’t hold anything back. She gives a raw, unapologetic account of her childhood and it is brilliant. Her poetry is fantastic, too.
Children of Blood and Bone
by Tomi Adeyemi
I love the way she weaves her stories. She borrows beautifully from her African heritage. I also like how easy to read her fight scenes are.
Lazy Secrets
My Name Is Sally Little Song
by Brenda Woods
This story inspires me to hold myself accountable in the way we authors write emotion and how it looks, how it feels, how it weighs on you—how it tastes and keeps you from sleeping. How heavy some emotions can be and how freeing others can be. The emotions given by this book, either experiencing them from the lead character, or the reader’s own, are amazing. Intense and world stopping.
I read this at a tender age, maybe ten years old. I had never seen, never heard of or read about a character like Sally. The childlike nature she held on to even with the sorrow of what was going on around her and the peace she ended with…the bittersweet freedom. This was the first book that ever made me cry, that I ever remember reading in the span of a day because I just couldn’t put it down.
The way the author showed emotion from the eyes of the little girl, these big emotions that as a child we are not made to deal with yet and how it felt natural, it felt real. This style of writing stuck with me. In my own writing now I try to do this on my own pages. I want to give another reader at least a sliver of that. I have never forgotten this story and I never will.
This author created something that I have never seen since—a true work of originality and something to be commended in a day where everything has already been done before. This book came out in 2007 and I’m not sure if it ever made prime-time news, but it is a gem. I’m truly thankful for this author. One of my all-time favorites.
The Glory Field, Handbook for Boys, Fallen Angels, Slam!, Hoops, Shooter, and Scorpions
by Walter Dean Myers
Walter Dean Myers was one of the first Black authors I read as a kid. His writing resonated with me because it was familiar to the way I talked and to the way I lived. I loved the writing style as well as the plots to these stories. I learned some big lessons from these books growing up. Walter Dean Myers has always been one of my all-time favorite authors and I credit him for showing me that I could write my own stories and one day have them published.
