We are so pleased to provide this reading list in collaboration with Elizabeth Gilbert, founder of the Onward Book Club and author of Eat Pray Love, Big Magic, The Signature of All Things, City of Girls, and more.

The Onward Book Club was created to support and celebrate the work of Black female authors — a group that has historically been under-supported and under-promoted in the publishing industry (and of course the world beyond). The OBC mission is to amplify Black female voices, both established and emerging, within the literary world and the global book-loving community. Elizabeth Gilbert’s bimonthly conversations with the brilliant authors featured here happen on Instagram Live, and can also be found at the Onward Book Club website. It is an honor for the Onward Book Club to partner with Elizabeth’s Bookshop and Writing Centre, to celebrate works by such extraordinarily talented writers and thinkers. Our hope is that readers will share these selections with their own book clubs, and increase the visibility these writers so richly deserve.