What's On Our Bookshelf?

Our Virtual Bookshelf

When we're not conference planning, working on member engagement, or organizing our archives, the National Office takes pause to reset and reflect. This looks like re-reading your kind emails in our #WarmFuzzies email folder, practicing mindfulness, snoozing emails, and revisiting rich lessons from our past Author Meets Critics (AMC) and Celebration of New Books and Authors presenters at the Annual Conference. Explore the work of our members - maybe you missed their session or are curious about scholarship that we've featured in the past - whom we are proud to have on our bookshelves!

We invite you to explore our Past Conferences Archive to review featured work since our first conference in 1979

The Archive

Quick Links

Transforming Family: Queer Kinship and Migration in Contemporary Francophone Literature, Dr. Jocelyn Frelier

"In Transforming Family: Queer Kinship and Migration in Contemporary Francophone Literature, Jocelyn Frelier takes up Jarrod Hayes’ assertion that ‘in some ways the Nation is always already queer’ (2000, 11), turning her attention to the always already queer ‘trans- families’ that inhabit novels by francophone authors of the North African diaspora. In three distinct sections, Frelier thoughtfully exam- ines how these writers mobilise portrayals of transnational, transcultural, and transdiasporic kinship models respectively, and in doing so propose an alterna- tive to rigid colonial models of the nuclear family. She especially emphasises the autofictional nature of the texts, opening each chapter with a biography of the writer that emphasises their experiences and self-identification as members of trans- families. In response, Frelier herself adopts a feminist autoethnographic approach inspired by Trinh T. Minh-ha’s conception of ‘speaking nearby’ (1992), noting in a preface and multiple interludes the influence of her own background as a member of a migrant trans- family. Her use of feminist autoethnography is one of the few examples of its kind in francophone literary studies, as is her emphasis on the transnational family rather than the individual as a queer subject, making her book a valuable addition to the field of post- and decolonial queer studies." 

- Émilie Hautemont, Journal of North African Studies

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Black Disability Politics, Dr. Sami Schalk

“Black Disability Politics bravely and humanely confronts shortcomings in social movements beyond the dualism of romanticizing them or throwing them away from a presentist perspective. Challenging myriad assumptions about disability activism and Black social movements, this book is an essential and overdue bridge between how we think about Blackness and how we think about disability.” -- Kimberly Springer, author of ― Living for the Revolution: Black Feminist Organizations, 1968–1980

"Black Disability Politics is a profound exploration and documentation of a cultural topic that has gone overlooked throughout the entire history of the Black American experience. . . .  A deeply important view of the fight for the rights of disabled Black people in America since the 1970s."―Jordannah Elizabeth, New York Amsterdam News

"Sami Schalk explores the histories and essential lessons of Black disabled labor, politics and movements. This is a long-overdue and essential volume."―Karla Strand, Ms.

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Get Empowered: A Practical Guide to Thrive, Heal, and Embrace Your Confidence in a Sexist World, Lauren Taylor

“Read Get Empowered, and you will feel safer and less lonely. This book speaks the truths we all need to hear. And most importantly, Nadia and Lauren will help you feel thoroughly supported in your journey to survive our disempowering world. Challenge the shame and blame that gender-based hate thrives on, and find powerful tools to transcend all the lies you’ve been told about yourself.”
—Jeffrey Marsh, LGBTQIA+ activist and author of How to Be You and Take Your Own Advice
 
“Get Empowered is an inspiring, grounding, practical guide to securing our own freedom, and that of our communities. No one can empower another—hard as it may be, we all have to find and activate our own best power sources. This book will help you name the life you want to live and deal, step by step, with the inner obstacles so that you can also resist the outer obstacles. So many forms of gender-based disrespect and violence shape our lives. I wish I'd had this book to grow up with, but reading it makes me think it's never too late to own my power.”
—Rinku Sen, racial justice strategist and writer

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