ICYMI: This Week in Black Writing (5/1 - 5/7)

- Portia Owusu added a young scholar's perspective to the chorus of voices weighing in on Toni Morrison's new novel, God Help the Child, which debuted at #3 on NPR's Bestsellers List for hardcover fiction.

- HBW talked with Crystal Bradshaw, creative writer and HBW staff communications, about her historical fiction novel about the life of her great-great-great-great-great-grandmother Eliza.


- Book Riot's Morgan Jenkins offers up some advice on how to write characters of color well.  (Tip #1: "Don't. Just kidding.")

- Mulling over famous figures who deserve a YA book treatment, Alison Peters highlights Ilyasah Shabazz and Kekla Magoon's recent young adult book X: A Novel, which explores Malcolm X's childhood.

- Shonda Rhimes and Dee Rees are adapting Isabel Wilkerson's The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration (2010) for a limited-run series on FX.

- Over on The Root, this letter-writer wonders if their family really is related to famous slave-rebellion leader Nat Turner.  Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Meaghan Siekman provide a fascinating, detailed answer.

- Stacey Patton, a senior reporter with The Chronicle of Higher Education, writes about how faculty on dual appointments, who are often faculty of color in ethnic studies positions, face additional barriers to achieving tenure.

And more reading for #BaltimoreRising:

- "Beyond Hashtag Activism," by David A. Graham
- "Have They Died in Vain?" by Ray Haberski
- "Is It an 'Uprising' or a 'Riot'? Depends on Who's Watching," by Karen Grigsby Bates
- "Cops Charged in Freddie Gray's Death Receive Lower Bails than Teen Rioter," by Daniel Politi