Page-turners: Bay Area writers of color, Oprah Winfrey shine light on new books, protests

That there is power in the written word is evident, in these days of righteous rage and rampant calls for racial justice, in the surge of interest in books about the black experience in America. The bestseller lists, both nationally and here in the Bay Area, are replete with titles that reflect that.

Meanwhile, Oprah Winfrey has just announced her next Book Club pick: “Deacon King Kong” (Riverhead Books, March 3, 2020) by National Humanities Medal winner James McBride, also author of “The Good Lord Bird” and “The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother.” And Amistad Books, a longtime publisher of black and multicultural books, this week launched a #BlackPublishingPower Initiative, urging everyone over the course of the week to purchase any two books by black authors in order to “blackout bestseller lists with black voices.”