Overview

An all-star ensemble cast of poets and performers bring to life Nikki Giovanni's extraordinary final collection--a landmark of American literature! For decades, Nikki Giovanni's poetry has been at the forefront of American culture. The New Book is a towering work of protest against the divisions of our time, leavened with moments of joy and reflection about her indelible legacy, her family history, and the small pleasures of her richly lived life. With this collection, which includes brief letters and short prose from her life as well as poetry, Giovanni reaffirms her place as a giant of literature, a canny truth-teller, an indispensable radical orator, and one of America's preeminent cultural critics. It is a book to be savored, and shared. Readers on this audiobook include: Kwame Alexander, Cheryl Boyce-Taylor, Jericho Brown, Tabitha Brown, Mahogany L. Browne, Rio Cortez, Virginia Fowler, Nikki Giovanni, Amanda Gorman, Taraji P. Henson, Nancy Johnson, Aja Naomi King, January LaVoy, Robin Miles, Nicole Sealey, Patricia Smith, Bahni Turpin, Renee Watson, and Kevin Young. """"If there was a need for poetry that galvanized and inspired, there was also a demand for poetry that comforted and unified -- and Ms. Giovanni provided on both counts."""" -- The Washington Post

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Nikki Giovanni (1943-2024), poet, activist, mother, grandmother, and educator, grew up in Tennessee and Ohio and graduated with honors from Fisk University in Nashville. The author of over thirty books, she was also the recipient of seven NAACP Image Awards, the Langston Hughes Medal for Outstanding Poetry, the Frost Medal, as well as thirty-one honorary degrees and an Emmy Award. She garnered her most unusual honor in 2007 when a South American bat species--Micronycteris giovanniae--was named in celebration of her. A devoted teacher and honorary member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., she spent thirty-five years as University Distinguished Professor of English at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. Nikki Giovanni (1943-2024), poet, activist, mother, grandmother, and educator, grew up in Tennessee and Ohio and graduated with honors from Fisk University in Nashville. The author of over thirty books, she was also the recipient of seven NAACP Image Awards, the Langston Hughes Medal for Outstanding Poetry, the Frost Medal, as well as thirty-one honorary degrees and an Emmy Award. She garnered her most unusual honor in 2007 when a South American bat species--Micronycteris giovanniae--was named in celebration of her. A devoted teacher and honorary member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., she spent thirty-five years as University Distinguished Professor of English at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. Kwame Alexander is a poet, an educator, and the New York Times bestselling author of more than thirty-five books, including his Newbery Medal-winning middle grade novel The Crossover. Some of his other works include Booked, which was longlisted for the National Book Award; The Playbook: 52 Rules to Aim, Shoot, and Score in This Game Called Life; Swing; the picture books How to Read a Book and How to Write a Poem (coauthored with Deanna Nikaido), both illustrated by Melissa Sweet; and The Undefeated, illustrated by Kadir Nelson, which was longlisted for the National Book Award and won the Caldecott Medal, a Newbery Honor, and the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award. He is a regular contributor to NPR's Morning Edition, currently serving as their poet ambassador. He lives in Virginia with his family. Visit his website at kwamealexander.com. A native of Chicago's South Side, Nancy Johnson worked for more than a decade as an Emmy-nominated, award-winning television journalist at CBS and ABC affiliates nationwide. A graduate of Northwestern University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, she lives in downtown Chicago and manages brand communications for a large nonprofit. Her first book, The Kindest Lie, was a Book of the Month Club selection and a Target Book Club pick. Taraji P. Henson is a multiple award-winning actor, writer, director, producer, and activist for mental health. She is the New York Times bestselling author of Around the Way Girl. Her natural humor and honesty, and her desire to encourage everyone to live true to yourself are reflected in Lil TJ, the main character in her first picture book. Taraji is a Washington DC native and currently lives in Los Angeles, CA. Rio Cortez is a writer and Pushcart-nominated poet who has received fellowships from Poet's House, Cave Canem, and CantoMundo foundations. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in the Los Angeles Review of Books, The Miami Rail, and Mother Magazine, among others. Born and raised in Salt Lake City, Rio writes and lives in Harlem, USA. Lauren Semmer is an artist, children's book illustrator, and designer. She studied drawing at St. Paul College of Visual Arts and art history at New York University. Lauren's bright and charming work is featured on everything from kid's wall art to children's apparel. She lives in Manhattan with her family. January LaVoy, winner of numerous awards for narration, was named a Golden Voice by AudioFile magazine in 2019. She is an American actress best known for her character Noelle Ortiz on the ABC daytime drama One Life to Live. In addition to working extensively in narration and television, including roles on Law & Order and All My Children, she has worked on and off Broadway as well as in regional theater. Born in St. Thomas, U.S.V.I. and raised in Apopka, Florida, Nicole Sealey is the author of The Animal After Whom Other Animals Are Named, winner of the 2015 Drinking Gourd Chapbook Poetry Prize. Her other honors include an Elizabeth George Foundation Grant, the Stanley Kunitz Memorial Prize from The American Poetry Review, a Daniel Varoujan Award and the Poetry International Prize, as well as fellowships from CantoMundo, Cave Canem, MacDowell Colony and the Poetry Project. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker and elsewhere. Nicole holds an MLA in Africana Studies from the University of South Florida and an MFA in creative writing from New York University. She is the Executive Director at Cave Canem Foundation. Kevin Young's first book, Most Way Home, was selected for the National Poetry Series by Lucille Clifton and won the Zacharis First Book Prize from Ploughshares. His subsequent poems and essays have appeared in The New Yorker, Paris Review, Grand Street, Kenyon Review, Callaloo, and Code; his work has also been featured on National Public Radio's All Things Considered and in The Beacon Best of 1999. A former Stegner fellow in poetry at Stanford University, Young is currently an assistant professor of English and African American studies at the University of Georgia in Athens. Tabitha Brown is an Emmy Award-winning host, actress, and vegan food star who is affectionately known as ""America's Mom."" She has provided millions with food for the body and soul with her everyday wisdom rooted in love, kindness, and compassion. She is also the author of Seen, Loved, and Heard: A Guided Journal for Feeding the Soul, Cooking from the Spirit, and Feeding the Soul (Because It's My Business), a #1 New York Times bestseller. Tabitha is the cocreator and host of her own children's show, Tab Time, as well as the recipient of several NAACP Image Awards. She is also the cofounder and CEO of her own hair care line, Donna's Recipe, and has product lines with Target and McCormick spices. Born and raised in Eden, North Carolina, she lives in Los Angeles with her family and dog. Jericho Brown is author of The Tradition, for which he won the Pulitzer Prize. He is the recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard, and the National Endowment for the Arts. He has received numerous prizes, including the Whiting Award. the American Book Award (for his first book, Please) and the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award (for his second book, The New Testament). His third work, the collection The Tradition, won the Paterson Poetry Prize and was a finalist for the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. Brown's poems have appeared in the Bennington Review, Buzzfeed, Fence, jubilat, the New Republic, the New York Times, The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Time magazine, and several volumes of The Best American Poetry annual anthology. He is the director of the Creative Writing Program and a professor at Emory University, and lives in Atlanta, Georgia. Amanda Gorman is the youngest presidential inaugural poet in US history. She is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Hill We Climb, Call Us What We Carry, and the children's picture books Change Sings and Something, Someday. She has been nominated for a Grammy Award and was honored with the Chairman's Award at the 55th NAACP Image Awards. In a groundbreaking collaboration with the Estée Lauder Companies as a Global Changemaker, she established the Writing Change initiative to support grassroots organizations dedicated to advancing literacy as a pathway to social change. She graduated cum laude from Harvard University and now lives in her hometown of Los Angeles. Please visit her at TheAmandaGorman.com or on Instagram @AmandaSCGorman. Robin Miles, named a Golden Voice by AudioFile magazine, has twice won the prestigious Audie Award for Best Narration, an Audie Award for directing, and many Earphones Awards. Her film and television acting credits include The Last Days of Disco, Primary Colors, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Law & Order, New York Undercover, National Geographic's Tales from the Wild, All My Children, and One Life to Live. She regularly gives seminars to members of SAG and AFTRA actors' unions, and in 2005 she started Narration Arts Workshop in New York City, offering audiobook recording classes and coaching. She holds a BA degree in theater studies from Yale University, an MFA in acting from the Yale School of Drama, and a certificate from the British American Drama Academy in England. Renée Watson is a #1 New York Times bestselling author. Her young adult novel Piecing Me Together received a Newbery Honor and Coretta Scott King Award. Her children's picture books and novels for teens have received several awards and international recognition. Her picture books include A Place Where Hurricanes Happen, Harlem's Little Blackbird: The Story of Florence Mills, Summer Is Here, and The 1619 Project: Born on the Water, written with Nikole Hannah-Jones. Renée grew up in Oregon and splits her time between Portland and Harlem. Mahogany L. Browne is a California-born, Brooklyn-based writer, educator, activist, mentor, and curator. She has published several books of poetry, and she is an Urban Word NYC Artistic Director (as seen on HBO's Brave New Voices), founder of Women Writers of Color Reading Room, and Director of BLM@Pratt Programming, and facilitates performance poetry and writing workshops throughout the country. Mahogany's poetry picture books include Black Girl Magic and Woke Baby. Bahni Turpin has guest starred in many television series, including NYPD Blue, Law & Order, Six Feet Under, and Cold Case. Her film credits include Brokedown Palace and Crossroads. She has won numerous AudioFile Earphones Awards and three prestigious Audie Awards. Patricia Smith is an inductee of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, a recipient of the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize for Lifetime Achievement, and a winner of the National Book Award for Poetry. She is the author of nine acclaimed books of poetry, including Unshuttered; Incendiary Art, finalist for the 2018 Pulitzer Prize and winner of the 2018 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, the 2017 Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and the 2018 NAACP Image Award; Shoulda Been Jimi Savannah, winner of the Lenore Marshall Prize from the Academy of American Poets; and Blood Dazzler, a National Book Award finalist. A Guggenheim Fellow, a National Endowment for the Arts grant recipient, a finalist for the Neustadt International Prize for Literature, and a four-time individual champion of the National Poetry Slam, Smith is a creative writing professor in the Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton University and a former distinguished professor at the City University of New York. She lives in New Jersey with her husband.

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