Why am I passionate about this?

Finding a voice is something I struggled with since childhood. Always afraid of being invisible or silent, finding common ground with writers who excelled at relating the human condition became a safe haven. I made a choice to focus on creative work that explores what is means to be simply human--to examine the hopes, needs, wants, and energies that make our daily lives move.


I wrote

The Incredible Shrinking Woman

By Athena Dixon,

Book cover of The Incredible Shrinking Woman

What is my book about?

A quiet retelling of a life in the background, Athena Dixon's debut essay collection, The Incredible Shrinking Woman, is…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of Sonic Memories and other essays

Athena Dixon Why did I love this book?

Sonic Memories makes the best use of a compact space without losing any of the narrative depth and emotional impact. This small collection of essays uses sound and music as its top note all the while using the silence in between to showcase a rich memoir-like exploration of Black girlhood growing into Black womanhood.

By Cija Jefferson,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Sonic Memories and other essays as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Sonic Memories is a debut collection of personal essays written and designed by the author.

These true stories begin in Utah in the late seventies. The author is two and her parents are hopeful newlyweds in their early twenties. We follow the family back to Maryland where her father's dream to practice law disintegrates when he doesn’t pass the bar after several attempts. His upwardly mobile hopes for his family are dashed, and the fallout from that—a fear of being trapped in a life of poverty and dreams deferred—dogs the author through most of her young adult/adult life. In these…


Book cover of They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us

Athena Dixon Why did I love this book?

An amazing example of how music can solidify personal experience and growth, this essay collection is fueled by stunning writing and a nuanced dissection of culture and our places within it. Never heavy-handed, They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us invites readers to revisit the cultural touchstones of their lives and find new entryways into memory and how it shapes our lives. 

By Hanif Abdurraqib,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

* 2018 "12 best books to give this holiday season" —TODAY (Elizabeth Acevedo)
* A "Best Book of 2017" —Rolling Stone (2018), NPR, Buzzfeed, Paste Magazine, Esquire, Chicago Tribune, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, CBC, Stereogum, National Post, Entropy, Heavy, Book Riot, Chicago Review of Books, The Los Angeles Review, Michigan Daily
* American Booksellers Association (ABA) 'December 2017 Indie Next List Great Reads'
* Midwest Indie Bestseller

In an age of confusion, fear, and loss, Hanif Abdurraqib's is a voice that matters. Whether he's attending a Bruce Springsteen concert the day after visiting Michael Brown's grave, or discussing public displays of…


Book cover of Their Eyes Were Watching God

Athena Dixon Why did I love this book?

A book that forces you to engage both intellectually and emotionally is a gift. This novel is beautiful in its unflinching pride in its Black Florida roots and dialect. It forces readers to lay down their expectations of language and step into something new. Hurston’s careful crafting of Janie’s discovery of self in relation to both external expectation and her internal desires is one that is world-altering.

By Zora Neale Hurston,

Why should I read it?

17 authors picked Their Eyes Were Watching God as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Cover design by Harlem renaissance artist Lois Mailou Jones

When Janie, at sixteen, is caught kissing shiftless Johnny Taylor, her grandmother swiftly marries her off to an old man with sixty acres. Janie endures two stifling marriages before meeting the man of her dreams, who offers not diamonds, but a packet of flowering seeds ...

'For me, THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD is one of the very greatest American novels of the 20th century. It is so lyrical it should be sentimental; it is so passionate it should be overwrought, but it is instead a rigorous, convincing and dazzling piece…


Book cover of Men We Reaped: A Memoir

Athena Dixon Why did I love this book?

Home is personal. It can vary greatly even among people in the same family. Men We Reaped is not just the story of one community and family, it also serves as a bridge to readers seeking to place their own legacy into perspective while trying to determine what they may bring to the ongoing story.

By Jesmyn Ward,

Why should I read it?

6 authors picked Men We Reaped as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

_______________ 'A brutal, moving memoir ... Anyone who emerges from America's black working-class youth with words as fine as Ward's deserves a hearing' - Guardian 'Raw, beautiful and dangerous' - New York Times Book Review 'Lavishly endowed with literary craft and hard-earned wisdom' - Time _______________ The beautiful, haunting memoir from Jesmyn Ward, the first woman to win the National Book Award twice 'And then we heard the rain falling and that was the blood falling; and when we came to get in the crops, it was dead men that we reaped' - Harriet Tubman Jesmyn Ward's acclaimed memoir shines…


Book cover of How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America: Essays

Athena Dixon Why did I love this book?

Finding your voice and using it to champion those in the world who mean the most to you is at the heart of this collection of essays. It is steadfast in its commentary on the world just as it questions the self and how to move beyond from what weighs you down in order to rise up.

By Kiese Laymon,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Author and essayist Kiese Laymon is one of the most unique, stirring, and powerful new voices in American writing. How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America is a collection of his essays, touching on subjects ranging from family, race, violence, and celebrity to music, writing, and coming of age in Mississippi. In this collection, Laymon deals in depth with his own personal story, which is filled with trials and reflections that illuminate under-appreciated aspects of contemporary American life. New and unexpected in contemporary American writing, Laymon's voice mixes the colloquial with the acerbic, while sharp insights and blast-furnace…


Explore my book 😀

The Incredible Shrinking Woman

By Athena Dixon,

Book cover of The Incredible Shrinking Woman

What is my book about?

A quiet retelling of a life in the background, Athena Dixon's debut essay collection, The Incredible Shrinking Woman, is a gentle unpacking of the roles she learned to inhabit, growing up as a Black woman in a small Midwestern town, to avoid disruption. But after the implosion of the life she'd always wanted, Dixon must explore the implications of her desire to hide as she rebuilds herself in a world that expects freedom to look boisterous. As Dixon presses the bruises of her invisibility, these essays glide between the pages of fan fiction, the rush of new panties, down the rabbit hole of depression, and reemerge on the other side, speaking with the lived authority of a voice that, even when shaking, is always crystal clear.

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After Me

By J. Shep,

Book cover of After Me

J. Shep Author Of The December Issue

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

Author

J.'s 3 favorite reads in 2024

What is my book about?

"an intense narrative of family and intangible inheritance. . .this novel unfolds like a fragrant, steeped tea." -Chanticleer Book Reviews, 5 Stars

"like a glorious sunrise, we are gifted the 'après,' the hope and goodness of 'after me.'" -Maria Giuseppa, author of R&R:  A Feast of Words

A man in France receives a package from America containing an autobiographical manuscript relating the events of a summer long ago. 

When Ellande and Madeleine-Grace visit the family summer house on the Alabaster Coast of Normandy for the first time without their parents, they find themselves growing aware of the importance of their…

After Me

By J. Shep,

What is this book about?

A man in France receives a package from America containing an autobiographical manuscript relating the events of a summer long ago.

When Ellande and Madeleine-Grace visit the family summer house on the Alabaster Coast of Normandy for the first time without their parents, they find themselves growing aware of the importance of their parents' choices in raising them. Under the care of their beloved Aunt Adèle, they explore their heritage and what their parents stood for while determining the value of customs and traditions of both family and France's stunning Pays de Caux. In the face of cruelty, carelessness, and…


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