THE SYLLABUS: Three Greats, Three Great Books

with Joy Francis, Sareeta Domingo & Mireille Harper

THE RELUCTANT DEAD

by Nuzo Onoh

“Nuzo Onoh is one of the leading voices in and champion of the African horror genre. Drawing on real life traditions, rituals, and rumours, The Reluctant Dead is infused with skin-crawling terror across six ghost stories that humanise those who have passed. Watch out for the tale of the morgue assistant who fails to follow the strict nighttime rules of the mortuary.“

RUNNING HOT

by Dreda Say Mitchell

“When Dreda Say Mitchell published her debut novel Running Hot in 2004, she disrupted the predominantly white and male crime-writing landscape and went on to win the Crime Writers Association’s John Creasey Dagger Award for Best Debut Novel. A chase thriller about a young man trying to break the cycle of incarceration, Running Hot needs to be rediscovered.”

LOCATING STRONGWOMAN

by Tolu Agbelusi

“This debut poetry collection is a must-read. Described as a portrait of ‘unperformed femininity’, it eschews the stereotypical portrayal of the ‘Strong Woman’ by making room for self-interrogation on our choices and relationships, including those we have with our mothers and our sexuality.”

JOY FRANCIS is co-founder and executive director of Words of Colour, which has developed, facilitated, produced and promoted writers of colour since 2006. In 2019, she was selected for the first Museum of Colour People of Letters gallery as a literature influencer. Joy and Words of Colour collaborated with Jacaranda Books on its bold Twenty in 2020 initiative, to publish 20 Black British authors.She was also a Judge for the British Book Awards 2022 and is a Royal Society of Literature Honorary Fellow 2022.

UNFORGIVABLE LOVE

by Sophfronia Scott

“This is a stunning retelling of the classic French novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses. In lieu of 18th-century aristocratic society, Sophfronia Scott’s Unforgivable Love is set among high-society African-Americans in late 1940s Harlem. Scott immediately sinks us into the sweaty Uptown streets and the Black churches where it’s as much about seeing and being seen as worship. We glimpse the socio-political climate, and the particularities of African-American society at the time, in a truly sumptuous tale.“

THE PERFECT FIND

by Tia Williams

“Despite writing romantic storylines as an author, I don’t often come across other romantic novels that really nail everything I’m looking for in a story—representation, chemistry, sexiness, and emotional depth. But The Perfect Find does just that. It follows Jenna Jones, a formerly high-flying magazine editor who finds herself humbled into a new, lesser job at a webzine. Williams writes with a zippy but astute touch that really draws you in as a reader, with genuinely witty lines and emotional scenes.”

THE WHITE BOY SHUFFLE

by Paul Beatty

“Beatty is a fantastic writer who uses humour and satire to great effect, most recently in his Booker Prize-winning novel, The Sellout. But his first novel, The White Boy Shuffle, published back in 1996, is my absolute favourite of his. It’s a satirical coming-of-age story featuring young black teen Gunnar Kaufman, who is yanked from his privileged neighbourhood to West Los Angeles. Beatty explores Black identity and cultural representation with dextrous, clever, laugh-out-loud prose.“

SAREETA DOMINGO is the author of The Three of Us and creator of romantic fiction anthology Who’s Loving You. Her novel, If I Don’t Have You, was shortlisted for the Diverse Book Awards 2021. Her books for Young Adults are published under S.A. Domingo, including Love on the Main Stage, shortlisted for the Lancashire Book of the Year 2021. She has contributed to publications including gal-dem, Black Ballad, and Stylist. She is Editorial Director at Trapeze Books.

EVA'S MAN

by Gayl Jones

“Many speak of Corregidora, Gayl Jones’ classic and perhaps the most well-known and regarded of her novels, but I find that Eva’s Man has stayed with me the most. It follows Eva, a woman who has murdered her lover and unpacks the manifestation of a lifetime of violence, misogyny, abuse, and mistreatment she has suffered, and how it has leads her to a point of no return. It’s deeply powerful, moving, and had a huge impact on me upon reading.“

FRYING PLANTAIN

by Zalika Reid-Benta

“I love this book so much. It follows Kara, a Canadian-Jamaican as she navigates her way through girlhood to adulthood. It’s a story that delves into mother-daughter relationships, identity and belonging, and the complexities of being the child of an immigrant parent. I love how rich, warm, and funny it is. I love the way it’s touching and emotional at the same time.”

GROWING OUT

by Barbara Blake Hannah

“This is such a brilliant memoir from Barbara Blake Hannah, the first Black woman to report on TV in the UK. It’s an eye-opening insight into a middle-class Jamaican upbringing in the 1960s and whirlwind journey that takes us from the glamour yet ghastliness of the TV industry, to Blake Hannah’s return home and path to self-recovery and acceptance through Rastafarianism.“

MIREILLE HARPER is Editorial Director at Pan Macmillan’s Bluebird Books imprint and a writer with pieces in the likes of Good Housekeeping, British Vogue, and more. She is the author of Timelines of Black History and a contributor to Timelines of Everyone. She is also a freelance sensitivity reader, having worked with names like DK, Bonnier, and Bloomsbury, and a freelance PR and communications consultant for companies like BYP Network.