I learned so much from the book I’m recommending today. I also had to take so many deep breaths while reading it. I wish I’d had access to and taken more classes focusing on literature from the Harlem Renaissance when I was an English major in college way back when, but the one class on African American lit that I did get to take introduced me to some of the figures in this book about the “Midwife of the Harlem Renaissance”–Jean Toomer, Langston Hughes, and Zora Neale Hurston, to name a few. I never heard mention of Jessie Redmon Fauset, this historical fiction novel’s central figure.
Harlem Rhapsody by Victoria Christopher MurrayMy colleague Erica Ezeifedi has a great write-up of this book over at In the Club, which you should read, and I almost decided not to read Harlem Rhapsody when Erica made clear that the affair between Fauset and W.E.B. Du Bois takes center stage. I find stories about affairs exhausting and infuriating—they’re usually not my jam. However, because I was so obviously behind in my knowledge of Fauset and wanted to get to know someone who was so integral to the success of authors whose books remain important to me and many others to this day, I decided to get over it and get into it. Well, no lies were told. The affair was a significant part of the book, and I struggled with how Du Bois treated Fauset and how Fauset returned to him again and again. I might as well have been breathing over Fauset’s mom’s shoulder, rooting her on while she delivered real-talk about this doomed relationship to her lovelorn grown daughter. I wanted someone to give Du Bois a talking to. Still, I was so enthralled by the picture of 1920s Harlem, dazzling with the creativity of the Black artists and creatives who gave the time such a fitting name. The authors Fauset “birthed” as their insightful and incisive editor, mentor, and writing partner are so much a part of the Western literary canon (whether or not they get listed as such), I never imagined them as uncertain young people with great potential until I read this book. It really is a wonder that this one woman saw that potential, made power moves, and walked them down the avenue toward success at a time when African Americans had so little opportunity and faced racist gatekeeping in publishing. It’s also a wonder how much she accomplished as the literary editor of The Crisis, the NAACP magazine founded by Du Bois. It makes me deeply sad that Fauset isn’t as much of a household name after all she did—the woman wrote a successful book I had never heard of!—and I am deeply appreciative to Victoria Christopher Murray for bringing her back into the light where she belongs. Also, Erica was so right to point out that this is the best book club book of the year so far. I mean, THE DISH: Fauset and Du Bois running around New York and Paris like a pair of love birds, the power dynamics, work and family drama, the lives of literary icons, the glory and the mess? Come on. |
The following comes to you from the Editorial Desk.
This week, we’re highlighting the best new poetry collections of 2025 (so far)! From the deeply personal to powerfully political, many of these collections reflect the zeitgeist and introduce some fresh voices in poetry. Read on for an excerpt and become an All Access member to unlock the full post.
How is it that we’re already more than a quarter of the way through 2025? I’m ahead of my reading goals and still feel so far behind at the same time. I’ve packed in plenty of poetry, though, finding lots of wonderful and surprising voices emerging. It’s early, but totally time to check in with some of the best new poetry collections of 2025 so far.
It’s funny how timely these collections are. Keep in mind that publishing moves VERY SLOWLY, so books that have been released in the first quarter of 2025 were probably completed in late 2023 or early 2024, only seeing the light of day recently. So, these collections were written in the run-up to last year’s presidential election. Nevertheless, many of these collections feel like guttural reactions to the world right now. Amazing how prescient art and artists can be, huh?
These poetry collections run the gamut from deeply personal to powerfully political. Let’s face it, those two are often the same anyway, particularly when it comes to poetry. Most exciting to me is how many of these best new poetry collections of 2025 so far are fresh voices to the poetic scene. Let’s dig into those collections, shall we?
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Source : Everyone Should Read This Book That Made Me Want to Tear Out My Hair
