Affiliate Disclosure: Purchases made through links on this site may earn us a commission. All commissions earned on children’s books will be donated in support of educational and cultural exchange opportunities for underserved students.
East Goes West - Younghill Kang
Evocation of a newcomer’s America by the father of Korean American literature. Foreword by Alexander Chee, afterword and notes by Sunyoung Lee.
The Yellow Wall-Paper and selected writings - Charlotte Perkins Gilman
A collection of the groundbreaking feminist writer’s most famous works. Introduction by Kate Bolick.
Sister Outsider - Essays and Speeches by Audre Lorde
The essential writings of an influential black lesbian poet and feminist voice in twentieth-century literature.
Before Night Falls: A Memoir - Reinaldo Arenas
The acclaimed memoir of homosexual Cuban author Reinaldo Arenas chronicles his life from his impoverished upbringing in Cuba to his imprisonment at the hands of a Communist regime. Translated by Dolores M. Koch, foreword by Jaime Manrique.
Passing - Nella Larsen
A powerful, thrilling, and tragic tale about the fluidity of racial identity that continues to resonate today. Introduction by Emily Bernard, notes by Thadious M. Davis.
Winter in the Blood - James Welch
A contemporary classic from a major writer of the Native American renaissance. Foreword by Joy Harijo, introduction by Louise Erdrich.
Rashōmon and Seventeen Other Stories - Ryunosuke Akeutagawa
The best stories by the father of the Japanese short story—including the two that inspired Kurosawa’s classic samurai film about the subjectivity of truth. Introduction by Haruki Murakami, Translated by Jay Rubin.
Death Comes for the Archbishop - Willa Cather
A quietly beautiful novel of one man’s life as he encounters the harsh landscape of the New Mexico desert and the people who inhabit it. Introduction by Kali Fajardo-Anstine.
The Custom of the Country - Edith Wharton
A sly and delicious novel about the ambitious social ascent of Undine Spragg. Foreword by Sofia Coppola, introduction by Sarah Blackwood.
The Portrait of a Lady - Henry James
A lucid tragedy exploring the distance between money and happiness. Foreword by Brandon Taylor.
America is in the Heart - Carlos Bulosan
A 1946 Filipino American social classic about the United States in the 1930s from the perspective of a Filipino migrant laborer who endures racial violence and struggles with the paradox of the American dream. Foreword by Elaine Castillo.
Bless Me, Ultima - Rudolfo Anaya
A coming-of-age novel that explores the cultural and spiritual conflicts experienced by a young boy as he navigates the complexities of his multicultural identity in 1940s New Mexico.
The Color Purple - Alice Walker
A powerful cultural touchstone of modern American literature. Foreword by Kiese Laymon.
The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway
Hemingway’s classic novel of post-war disillusionment. Introduction by Amor Towles.
The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
Nick Carraway, a World War I veteran who moves to New York with the hope of making it big, finds himself attracted to Jay Gatsby and his flamboyant lifestyle. Notes by Philip McGowan, introduction by Min Jin.
Mrs Dalloway - Virginia Woolf
An engulfing portrait of one day in a woman’s life. Notes by Elaine Showalter, foreword by Jenny Offill, edited by Stella McNichol.
We - Yevgeny Zamyatin
The Russian dystopian novel of totalitarian mass surveillance that inspired George Orwell’s 1984. Foreword by Masha Gessen, introduction by Clarence Brown.
How the García Girls Lost Their Accents - Julia Alvarez
A modern Latinx classic that gives voice to four sisters as they grow up in two cultures. Foreword by Elizabeth Acevedo.
In the Time of the Butterflies - Julia Alvarez
A modern Latinx classic about four sisters known as Las Mariposas, or the Butterflies, who fought to liberate the Dominican Republic from Rafael Trujillo’s dictatorship. Foreword by Maxine Hong Kingston.
The Women of Brewster Place: A Novel in Seven Stories - Gloria Naylor
A contemporary classic that deftly portrays many of the realities of black life. Foreword by Tayari Jones.