Last year, I did The Diverse Baseline Reading Challenge to encourage me to be intentional with reading books from authors with different experiences and perspectives from my own. Something I didn’t expect with this challenge is that I also read genres I don’t typically read! I felt like I really branched out in the books I read last year and I wanted to highlight the prompts and the books I read for each one.
Before I begin, here’s a little bit more about the challenge. The Diverse Baseline Reading Challenge was created by @bookish.millennial & @themargherita.s (on Instagram). Please check out the carrd for the guidelines but the general goal of the 2024 challenge was this
MISSION: read a minimum of 3 books by BIPOC authors per month, for the entirety of 2024 (to make a minimum of 36 BIPOC books), in order to help form the habit of reading and supporting BIPOC books
All books need to be written by BIPOC authors. Books with BIPOC main characters written by white authors do NOT fit the brief.
The challenge is back for 2025 and it’s never too late to join! This year has a little more flexibility and updated language. The challenge is to read one book by a racialized author with a prompt of your choosing. For me, I’m going to do 3 books a month and am keeping track of them in my physical reading journal as well as on The Storygraph.
A collection of poetry by a BIPOC author: Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear: Poems from Gaza by Mosab Abu Toha
A book by a Latine author: The Haunting of Alejandra by V. Castro
A book by a BIPOC author with a fat main character: Unashamed: Musings of a Fat, Black Muslim by Leah Vernon
A book by a Black author: Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby
An Historical Fiction book by a BIPOC author: Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward
A book by a BIPOC author with found family: A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
A translated book by a BIPOC author: Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
A book by an Indigenous Author: I Was a Teenage Slasher by Stephen Graham Jones
A book by a BIPOC author with a different religious background than you: Rifqa by Mohammed El-Kurd
A book by a BIPOC author about chronic illness/pain: What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma by Stephanie Foo
A book by a Southwest Asian and North African (SWANA) author: A Woman Is No Man by Etaf Rum
A book by a BIPOC author about colonization: Immortal Pleasures by V. Castro
A book by an East Asian, Native Hawaiian, or Pacific Islander Author: Twisted Games by Ana Huang
A book by a Desi or South Asian Author: We Have Always Been Here: A Queer Muslim Memoir by Samra Habib
A book by a BIPOC author with a teenage main character: The Ones We’re Meant to Find
by Joan He
A book by a BIPOC Queer author: All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson
A book by a BIPOC Indie author: That Time I Took Down A Cult by Rebel Carter
A novella by a BIPOC author: Lovers at the Museum: A Short Story by Isabel Allende
A book by a Disabled BIPOC author: Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century edited by Alice Wong
A book by a Neurodivergent BIPOC author: Wrapped Up in You by Talia Hibbert
A book by a BIPOC author with real people/models on the cover: Forbidden by Beverly Jenkins
A book by a biracial or mixed-race author: Alone with You in the Ether by Olivie Blake
An anthology by BIPOC authors: Out There Screaming edited by Jordan Peele
A retelling or re-imagining by a BIPOC author: Sleep Like Death by Kalynn Bayron
Fantasy/Science Fiction by a BIPOC author: Legendborn by Tracy Deonn
Memoir by a BIPOC author: How to Say Babylon by Safiya Sinclair
A picture/children’s book by a BIPOC author:
- Like the Moon Loves the Sky by Hena Khan, illustrated by Saffa Khan
- The Book Itch: Freedom, Truth & Harlem’s Greatest Bookstore by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson, illustrated by R. Gregory Christie
- Can I Touch Your Hair?: Poems of Race, Mistakes, and Friendship by Charles Waters and Irene Latham, illustrated by Sean Qualls
Horror, Thriller, or Mystery by a BIPOC author: The Reformatory by Tananarive Due
A book by a Trans BIPOC Author: Beyond the Gender Binary Pocket Change Collective by Alok Vaid-Menon
A book of your choice by a BIPOC author: The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones
A Literary fiction book by a BIPOC author: You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi
A Surrealism, Fabulism, or Magical Realism book by a BIPOC author: A Love Song for Ricki Wilde by Tia Williams
A graphic novel or comic book by a BIPOC author: Bingo Love by Tee Franklin with Jenn St-Onge (Illustrator), Joy San (Illustrator)
A book by a BIPOC author about intersectional feminism: Women, Race, & Class by Angela Y. Davis
A holiday romance by a BIPOC author: What’s A Girl Gotta Do To Get On The Naughty List by Kimberly Lemming
A cozy mystery by a BIPOC author: Murder and Mamon by Mia P. Manansala
Lastly, if you took the time to read this— Thank you! but also if you notice a book doesn’t fit a prompt please let me know! I will be sure to correct as I partake in the 2025 challenge.
Musings by Michelle 