- Isabel Wilkerson, author of The Warmth of Other Suns
- Maya Angelou, author of All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, and A Song Flung Up to Heaven
- Cristina Henríquez, author of The Book of Unknown Americans
- Ta-Nehisi Coates, author of Between the World and Me and We Were Eight Years in Power
- James Baldwin, author of Go Tell it on the Mountain and Giovanni’s Room
- Ralph Ellison, author of Invisible Man
- Richard Wright, author of Native Son and Black Boy
- Sandra Cisneros, author of The House on Mango Street
- Tommy Orange, author of There, There
- Jesmyn Ward, author of Sing, Unburied, Sing
