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Whitney Peeling @wpeeling.bsky.social · 16d

"Mother love & mother violence form an indivisible braid in Sasha Bonét’s deeply felt memoir...[O]bservant, thoughtful & poetic.... Her account of both her family history & the lives of her tributaries show off her gifts to the fullest." @aaknopf.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2025/09/20/b...

A Searing Memoir of Black Womanhood, Across Generations

www.nytimes.com

Whitney Peeling @wpeeling.bsky.social · 19d

Artist Tschabalala Self calls Sasha Bonét's THE WATERBEARERS "a Black American classic." @bombmag.bsky.social "[It] is not just a book; it’s a living archive, a testimony, & a reckoning, one which Sasha so generously shares w/ us in equal parts tenderness & clarity." bombmagazine.org/articles/202...

BOMB Magazine | Sasha Bonét by Tschabalala Self

A Black mother’s memoir, from the Gulf to the Hudson, about transforming inherited pain into generational healing.

bombmagazine.org

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Whitney Peeling @wpeeling.bsky.social · 19d

Don't miss this beautiful excerpt of Sasha Bonét's THE WATERBEARERS in ELLE this week @aaknopf.bsky.social

www.elle.com/culture/book...

'If She’s Beautiful, What Does That Make Me?'

The Waterbearers author Sasha Bonét on the perceptions thrust upon a Black girl’s body.

www.elle.com

Whitney Peeling @wpeeling.bsky.social · 21d

Happy publication week to Sasha Bonét, whose gorgeous debut, THE WATERBEARERS: My Mother, My Grandmother, and the Women Who Carried Me, is now out in the world (and excerpted in Oprah Daily).
@aaknopf.bsky.social

www.oprahdaily.com/entertainmen...

Black Grandmothers Are the Quiet Architects of Survival—Their Prayers and Wisdom Still Shape Generations Today

"I can always tell when someone is raised by their grandmama," writes Sasha Bonét, "you’ll only notice if you know what you’re looking for."

www.oprahdaily.com

Whitney Peeling @wpeeling.bsky.social · 28d

"[A] dazzling, transformative work that reimagines Black womanhood, inviting us to reconsider how we understand ourselves as individuals, parents, communities and a nation."

Deep South on THE WATERBEARERS @sashabonet.bsky.social (out 9/16 from @aaknopf.bsky.social)

deepsouthmag.com/2025/09/09/f...

Whitney Peeling @wpeeling.bsky.social · 28d

Congratulations, @calebgayle.bsky.social!!! BLACK MOSES is a contender for the National Book Award in Nonfiction!!! @nationalbook.bsky.social @riverheadbooks.bsky.social

www.nationalbook.org/2025-nationa...

2025 National Book Awards Longlist for Nonfiction

The ten contenders for the National Book Award for Nonfiction

www.nationalbook.org

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Whitney Peeling @wpeeling.bsky.social · Sep 4

Thanks to @therootdotcom.bsky.social for including THE WATERBEARERS by Sasha Bonét in its September round-up! @aaknopf.bsky.social

www.theroot.com/books-by-bla...

Books By Black Authors We Can't Wait to Read in September 2025

A new collection of work from Nikki Giovanni and the story behind the women of Parliament-Funkadelic are just a few of the books we're reading this month.

www.theroot.com

Whitney Peeling @wpeeling.bsky.social · Sep 3

Included in the @vanityfair.com round-up of September staff favorites is Sasha Bonét's beautiful debut, THE WATERBEARERS ("a rich ode to Black matriarchy") @aaknopf.bsky.social

www.vanityfair.com/style/story/...

These Back To School Novels Skewer Academia—Dark, Protein-Maxxing, and Otherwise

New fiction by Jordan Castro and R.F. Kuang makes hay of campus politics and intellectual foibles, plus more recent favorites from the staff of Vanity Fair.

www.vanityfair.com

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Whitney Peeling @wpeeling.bsky.social · Aug 29

Love seeing Aaron Robertson among the 2025 Zora Awards nonfiction finalists for THE BLACK UTOPIANS! @fsgbooks.bsky.social

people.com/2025-zora-aw...

2025 Zora Awards Finalists Are Here — See the Full List (Exclusive)

The Zora Awards have announced their 2025 finalists. Hosted by the Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Foundation, the award honors Black writers across fiction, nonfiction and poetry.

people.com

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Whitney Peeling @wpeeling.bsky.social · Aug 15

"Today, with the White House attempting to control discussion of African American history...BLACK MOSES is a useful reminder that for nearly a century after the Civil War, what was called democracy was indistinguishable from white power." @calebgayle.bsky.social

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/15/b...

The Quixotic Crusade to Create an All-Black State in Oklahoma

www.nytimes.com

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Whitney Peeling @wpeeling.bsky.social · Aug 13

BLACK MOSES @calebgayle.bsky.social, excerpted this week in @smithsonianmag.bsky.social: "It is the story of trying, why we cannot stop trying, and why being able to try is worth remembering at all." @riverheadbooks.bsky.social

www.smithsonianmag.com/history/this...

This Visionary African American Politician Dreamed of Creating an All-Black State in Oklahoma Territory

Edward P. McCabe petitioned Benjamin Harrison for an opportunity to show him that Black people "are men and women capable of self‑government." When the president was unmoved, McCabe and his followers ...

www.smithsonianmag.com

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Whitney Peeling @wpeeling.bsky.social · Aug 13

"[T]he moral decisions we must make [today] haven’t gotten easier. Who we detain, whose histories we erase, which freedoms we underfund.... The difference now is that there’s no Kansas to send our convictions to." @calebgayle.bsky.social @bostonglobe.com
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/08/10/o...

How New England built the Plains - The Boston Globe

When a fugitive slave was caught in Boston in 1854, many civic leaders were outraged — but they wouldn’t challenge slavery directly. So they found an outlet for their conscience on the frontier.

www.bostonglobe.com

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Whitney Peeling @wpeeling.bsky.social · Aug 11

@hamiltoncain.bsky.social calls BLACK MOSES @calebgayle.bsky.social "eloquent" & "engrossing." "Gayle does more than just rescue a forgotten yet crucial figure; he places McCabe at the center of radical liberation." @riverheadbooks.bsky.social @startribune.com www.startribune.com/edward-mccab...

Review: Meet the man who tried to establish a Black state within the U.S.

Nonfiction: Caleb Gayle’s gorgeous “Black Moses” illuminates a forgotten figure from our racial past.

www.startribune.com

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Whitney Peeling @wpeeling.bsky.social · Aug 6

Tx to @therootdotcom.bsky.social for featuring BLACK MOSES @calebgayle.bsky.social in its August Books round-up! @riverheadbooks.bsky.social @thegernertco.bsky.social

www.theroot.com/august-2025-...

August 2025 Books By Black Authors We Can't Wait to Read | The Root

The summer may be almost over, but great books by Black authors are still coming in hot.

www.theroot.com

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Whitney Peeling @wpeeling.bsky.social · Aug 4

"If we are serious about holding this country together, we have to reckon w/ the real American inheritance, where ambition & betrayal, dreaming & dispossession, are not opposite. They are co-tenants." @calebgayle.bsky.social BLACK MOSES (8/12) @us.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...

If you don’t understand Oklahoma, you can’t understand America

A Black man like me is not supposed to love Oklahoma. But in studying my home state’s history of violence, theft and wild ambitions, I learned to reckon with its legacy

www.theguardian.com

Whitney Peeling @wpeeling.bsky.social · Aug 1

Among the many reasons I cherish Sasha Bonét's THE WATERBEARERS (Knopf, Sept 16): its incomparably authentic, mold-shattering depiction of womanhood & single motherhood. Ty @publisherswkly.bsky.social for giving your cover to this life-changing new work. Get ready, world.

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Whitney Peeling @wpeeling.bsky.social · Jul 30

Love seeing Caleb Gayle's superb BLACK MOSES (Riverhead, Aug 12) on this list!

@nytimes.com @calebgayle.bsky.social @riverheadbooks.bsky.social @thegernertco.bsky.social

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/30/b...

22 Books Coming in August

www.nytimes.com

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Reposted by Whitney Peeling

Pamela Colloff @pamelacolloff.bsky.social · Apr 23

At the top of my reading list: @calebgayle.bsky.social's forthcoming BLACK MOSES, about a 19th-century Black visionary who dreamed of a state governed by and for Black people. It's my favorite kind of story--a buried history of resistance and possibility.

www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/717975...

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Whitney Peeling @wpeeling.bsky.social · Apr 10

Congratulations to the stupendous new cohort of Whiting Award winners!!!

@npr.org @mtaeckens.bsky.social
@whitingfoundation.bsky.social

www.npr.org/2025/04/09/n...

10 emerging writers win Whiting Awards

The awards, which come with a $50K purse, have helped launch the writing careers of many now well-known authors, including Colson Whitehead, Ocean Vuong, Alice McDermott and Jia Tolentino.

www.npr.org

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Whitney Peeling @wpeeling.bsky.social · Feb 20

Well thank you, you kind soul, you

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Whitney Peeling @wpeeling.bsky.social · Feb 20

Just call me Bubbles

@aliahanna.bsky.social @broadside-pr.bsky.social
aliahabib.substack.com/p/bubbles-of...

Bubbles of Interest: An Interview with Independent Publicist Whitney Peeling

On the vexed question of "Should I hire a freelance publicist for my book?" plus further proof that it pays to be kind.

aliahabib.substack.com

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Whitney Peeling @wpeeling.bsky.social · Feb 19

THE BLACK UTOPIANS + THE LIGHT EATERS are @latimes.com Bk Prize finalists! 👏 👏👏 to @zoeschlanger.bsky.social @sarahjgrimm.bsky.social Aaron Robertson (+ to @jeffvandermeer.bsky.social, rep'd by @broadside-pr.bsky.social's @mtaeckens.bsky.social, for ABSOLUTION)!

www.latimes.com/entertainmen...

Andrew Garfield, Percival Everett and Attica Locke among L.A. Times Book Prize finalists

Andrew Garfield, Percival Everett and Attica Locke are among the finalists for the 45th Los Angeles Times Book Prizes.

www.latimes.com

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Whitney Peeling @wpeeling.bsky.social · Feb 15

KB you are too kind. I do love this book, though!!

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Whitney Peeling @wpeeling.bsky.social · Jan 22

YES to this (and thanks also to Victor Luckerson, whose book, BUILT FROM THE FIRE, was frequently referenced in the report).

Jill Lawrence @jilldlawrence.bsky.social · Jan 18

I'm rapidly running through🎁 links this month to share what I think matters. Thanks to @roncharles.bsky.social for highlighting DOJ reports on Jan. 6 and Tulsa massacre, and to @melvillehouse.bsky.social for turning the former by Jack Smith into a book with more reach than a DOJ pdf. wapo.st/40lsCrB

Column | The most important author of the moment is the Justice Department

Special reports on Jan. 6 and the Tulsa Race Massacre challenge us to remember what some would rather forget.

wapo.st

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Whitney Peeling @wpeeling.bsky.social · Dec 13

Ty @bostonglobe.com @katekilla.bsky.social for including THE BLACK UTOPIANS/Aaron Robertson, THE LIGHT EATERS/@zoeschlanger.bsky.social, + more @broadside-pr.bsky.social projects here! @fsgbooks.bsky.social @harpercollins.bsky.social @sarahjgrimm.bsky.social

www.bostonglobe.com/2024/12/13/a...

The 75 best books of 2024 - The Boston Globe

Boston Globe book critics give us their favorites from a year of great titles.

www.bostonglobe.com

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