Nonfiction – Literary Criticism – Women Authors – American – African American and Black

RELEASE DATE: 1/27/2026 (WILL SHIP DIRECTLY FROM OUR SUPPLIER’S WAREHOUSE)

An illuminating, electrifying exploration of the work of Toni Morrison by an award-winning novelist and Harvard professor

Toni Morrison, Nobel Laureate and one of our 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 puts it, she is our only truly canonical black, female writerand her work is highly complex. In On Morrison, Serpell brings her unique experience as both an award-winning writer and professor who teaches a course on Morrison to illuminate her masterful experiments with literary form.

This is Morrison as youve never encountered her before, a journey through her oeuvreher fiction and criticism, as well as her lesser-known dramatic works and poetrywith contextual guidance, archival discoveries, and original close readings. At once accessible and uncompromisingly rigorous, On Morrison is a primer not only on how to read one of the most significant American authors of all time, but also on how to read great works of literature in general. This dialogue on the page between two black women artist-readers is stylish, edifying, and thrilling in its scope and intelligence.

AUTHOR BIO:

Namwali Serpellwas born in Lusaka and lives in New York. Her debut novel,The Old Drift,won an Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Science Fiction, and theLos Angeles Times‘s Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction. Her second novel,The Furrows,was a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction and was selected as one ofThe New York TimesTen Best Books of the Year. Her book of essays,Stranger Faces,was a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism. She is a recipient of the Windham-Campbell Prize for Fiction, the Caine Prize for African Writing, and a Rona Jaffe Foundation Award. She is a professor of English at Harvard University.

Review Quotes:
“Immense gratitude for this book, and for Namwali Serpell’s close looking, which has led to these stunning reconsiderations of Morrison, which are incisive, tender, and also honest and unsparing . . . This is a book that rises to the challenge of extending and expanding a legacy by giving the person at the heart of that legacy time, rigor, and care.”–Hanif Abdurraqib,New York Timesbestselling author ofThere’s Always This Year

“InOn Morrison,Serpell applies her prodigious intellect, vast literary archive, and her own calling as a novelist to magnificent effect in this breathtaking, provocative, and refreshing engagement with Morrison as a thinker as well as an artist. Filled with unique analyses, deep dives, and an intellectual playfulness that Morrison herself so valued, this book will stand as one of the most important twenty-first-century works on the great American writer.”–Imani Perry, author ofSouth to America,winner of the National Book Award

“On Morrisonis not simply a literary miracle; it is a cultural feat, a damn near perfect concoction made maybe once in a generation. It is what happens when a mind as curious as it is expansive explores the work of the greatest maker of novels in American history. Namwali Serpell’s staggering brilliance sifts and sits in this book of criticism, this book of artful expansion. There is nothing like it, nothing like Serpell’s imaginative know-how, and we should be thankful to share the earth with this art object.”–Kiese Laymon, author ofHeavy

“InOn Morrison, Namwali Serpell offers a thrilling, candid and immersive study of one extraordinary mind by another, and a critical reappraisal of a body of work that readers of Morrison will find enlightening for years to come. A necessary book, and a brilliant achievement.”–Preti Taneja, author ofWe That Are Young