A collection of TheNew Yorker‘s groundbreaking writing on race in America—including work by James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Hilton Als, Zadie Smith, and more—with a foreword by Jelani Cobb

This anthology from the pages of theNew Yorkerprovides a bold and complex portrait of Black life in America, told through stories of private triumphs and national tragedies, political vision and artistic inspiration. It reaches back across a century, with Rebecca West’s classic account of a 1947 lynching trial and James Baldwin’s “Letter from a Region in My Mind” (which later formed the basis ofThe Fire Next Time), and yet it also explores our current moment, from the classroom to the prison cell and the upheavals of whatJelani Cobb calls “the American Spring.”Bringing together reporting, profiles, memoir, and criticism from writers such asChimamanda Ngozi Adichie,Elizabeth Alexander,Hilton Als,Vinson Cunningham,Henry Louis Gates, Jr.,Malcolm Gladwell,Jamaica Kincaid,Kelefa Sanneh,Doreen St. Félix, and others, the collectionoffersstartling insights about this country’s relationship with race.The Matter of Black Livesreveals the weight of a singular history, and challenges us to envision the future anew.