First published 2019
Morrison collects her most important nonfiction writing from forty years of public engagement. She opens each section with major reflections: a prayer for those lost on September 11th, thoughts on Martin Luther King Jr., and a tribute to James Baldwin. Morrison examines contested social questions including immigration, women's rights, media responsibility, economic inequality, and civil liberties. She explores cultural topics like the artist's role in society, literary imagination, and African American contributions to American letters. Her Nobel Prize lecture on language's power anchors the collection. Morrison also provides commentary on her novels The Bluest Eye, Sula, Tar Baby, Jazz, Beloved, and Paradise, alongside discussions of artist Romare Bearden, writer Toni Cade Bambara, and director Peter Sellars. The book demonstrates Morrison's intellectual range and moral vision across decades of American cultural and political change.
Genres: essays, literary-criticism, american, african-american, non-fiction, biography-memoir, academic, cultural-studies
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: non-fiction
Setting: America, United States
Period: 20th Century, 21st Century
354 pages · Hardcover · Knopf