Literature

Toni at Random

A great editor works so seamlessly in the range of the author’s voice as to be invisible to readers. It makes sense that when considering Toni Morrison—Nobel Prize winner, stone-cold genius and among the greatest writers of all time—readers might not be thinking about her impact as an editor, even though it was tremendous. Working at top publishing houses, Morrison edited authors like Toni Cade Bambara, Leon Forrest and Lucille Clifton, and profoundly influenced American letters. Before her death, she requested that Howard University dean Dana A. Williams tell this story. Toni at Random: The Iconic Writer’s Legendary Editorship will grant her wish.

Positive Obsession

By Susana M. Morris

In her too-short life, Octavia E. Butler redefined science fiction with books like Kindred, Parable of the Sower and Bloodchild. Named for Butler’s 1995 essay, in which she writes starkly about her beginnings as a writer, Susana M. Morris’ Positive Obsession seems akin to Alexis Pauline Gumbs’ 2024 biography of Audre Lorde, Survival Is a Promise. By grounding Butler’s work in the sociological and historical contexts of her time—such as Black Power, women’s rights and LGBTQ+ rights—Positive Obsession: The Life and Times of Octavia E. Butler promises to show how the author was driven to push boundaries, imagine new futures and expand the genre of science fiction.

Mark Twain

By Ron Chernow

Ron Chernow’s biography of Alexander Hamilton may have launched him into mainstream fame with the success of Lin Manuel Miranda’s musical adaptation, but the Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer (for George Washington) is not resting on his laurels. Mark Twain is sure to illuminate the eponymous author’s life and times with delightfully excessive research and a brisk narrative pace. Fans of Twain and Chernow best set aside their TBR piles to indulge in this 1,200-page whopper from one of the eminent historians of our time.