Reading Lists

Education is where capitalism, racism, and policing intersect, resulting in what we know as the “school to prison pipeline.” These groundbreaking books investigate how privatization and reliance on testing have ...

There can be no transformation of our world without imagination, and imagination is the bedrock of literature. In these spellbinding, poignant, often heartbreaking books, authors from around the world explore ...

The visibility of the Black Lives Matter movement against police brutality has drawn attention to a deeper conversation. If racism is embedded in our criminal justice system so deeply, in ...

This summer the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Rayshard Brooks, and many more Black people at the hands of the police sparked nationwide demonstrations and new conversations about what ...

As 2020 draws to a close many of us are weary and frightened, but hopeful. While we’ve suffered under the pandemic and the police, we’ve also come together to build ...

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o is one of the giants of contemporary literature. Writing primarily in Gikuyu, his writing spans genre and form—from novels to criticism, memoir to plays—and has been praised ...

September is National Translation Month, a month to celebrate literature written in different languages and honor the unique and often underrecognized process of adapting a text into a new language, ...

The first Labor Day parade took place in New York City on September 5th, 1882 as a demonstration for worker’s rights. Twelve years later, it was signed into a law ...

The first episode of “Lovecraft Country,” a new sci-fi/horror series from Jordan Peele, Misha Green, and J.J. Abrams, premiered on Sunday, and it has since sparked a conversation about a ...

When most Americans think of college, they conjure pre-pandemic images of young adults fresh out of high school strolling across bucolic residential campuses and enjoying student life in dorms. After ...

This summer the New York Times and Serial released Nice White Parents, a new podcast about the decades-long relationship between white parents and the neighborhood public school. In the podcast ...

The 2020 presidential election is rapidly approaching, and it holds the potential for a monumental reckoning of American democracy. Protests persist across the country in an effort to defund the ...

With ongoing nationwide protests against police violence, race in the United States has been at the center of many conversations in recent weeks—books on racial injustice like The New Jim ...

The New Press has long championed Black and Brown authors, and we remain dedicated to providing resources for people seeking to educate themselves on systems of inequality and violence. Amidst ...

Throughout its history The New Press has published hundreds of books that challenge racism and shine a spotlight on systemic injustice, books that correct a whitewashed historical narrative and offer ...

Throughout the week, we’re celebrating the life and legacy of author Studs Terkel leading up to his birthday on Saturday. Today, we have a collection of quotes pulled from his ...

The coronavirus pandemic has underscored the inequities of capitalist society. It is more important than ever to think, discuss, and engage with ideas that could transform the institutions that govern ...

Romesh Gunesekera’s newest novel, Suncatcher, went on sale last month with rave reviews. The story of a Sri Lankan boyhood friendship, this poignant bildungsroman deftly navigates privilege and politics along ...

Last week on the blog we shared a list of six wonderful works that will transport you far, far away, all while staying hunkered down at home. This week we ...

Need to distance yourself from the current situation?  We’d like to recommend six wonderful works that will transport you far, far away. No need to keep your distance from great ...

While many folks transition to working from home, let’s keep in mind the many others who don’t have the luxury of doing so, including the tens of thousands of people ...

March is Women's History Month, a month dedicated to highlighting the contributions of women to history and to contemporary society. To celebrate we're sharing a reading list of new and ...

We continue our Black History Month celebration with an essential roundup of new and backlist titles. These books span history, offering perspectives both individual and grand, showing us how to ...

Most Americans know of Rosa Parks, the Black woman who famously refused to give up her seat to a white person on a bus in Alabama, and helped to ignite ...