'Serpell is a superb essayist' DIANA EVANS

'Breathtaking, provocative, and refreshing' IMANI PERRY

The essential companion to Toni Morrison’s work, written by Namwali Serpell, ‘one of the most innovative and intelligent writers today’ (Financial Times).

Toni Morrison, Nobel Laureate and one of the most beloved writers, has inspired generations of readers. But her artistic genius is often overshadowed by her monumental public persona, perhaps because, as Namwali Serpell states, ‘she is our only truly canonical black, female writer – and her work is highly complex.’

In On Morrison, Serpell brings her unique experience as both an award-winning writer and professor to shed light on Toni Morrison’s masterful experiments with literary form.

This is Morrison as you've never seen her before—a journey through her vivid fiction and criticism, as well as her lesser-known dramatic works and poetry—with contextual guidance and detailed close readings. Accessible and intensely rigorous, On Morrison is a guide not only on how to read one of the most significant American authors of our time but also on how to approach any great work of literature.

The dialogue between the two Black women artist-readers that emerges from these pages is stylish, enlightening, and spectacular in its scope and depth.

'A literary miracle' KIESE LAYMON, author of Heavy: An American Memoir

'Insightful, tender, and also honest and unflinching’ HANIF ABDURRAQIB, author of A Little Devil in America

Pages: 384, Dimensions: 16.3x16.3cm