No one has ever quizzed me on which classics I’ve read. No one has thought me a better reader or writer just because I’ve read A Room With a View or My Antonia. We read some classics in my high school classes but I missed a lot of other, perhaps more relevant ones (1984, Brave New World, The Bluest Eye, and Fahrenheit 451 come to mind) and ended up reading them on my own, years later. I’m not saying we need to get rid of the classics. Harper Lee remains one of my favorite writers, and now we have the added benefit of discussing problematic elements in her works and not ignoring them; I was introduced to some of my other favorites like Faulkner, Steinbeck, and Hurston, in high school. But I do think we could update reading lists. Different styles of writing and formats could help break up the syllabus and pique students’ interests. It doesn’t have to be either/or — it can, and should, be a both/and situation. Some schools do this well. I’ve been impressed with the summer reading that the local public schools do near me. But in conversation with others, while there are some improvements in diversity and varied formats (graphic novels, poetry), many of the books are still the same, years and decades later. If life and literature are constantly evolving, shouldn’t curricula, too? I thought about my high school English classes and the books I read, and this is what I’d love to see incorporated into English class reading lists. This is by no means an exhaustive list; I could add dozens more, easily. Authors like Flannery O’Connor, Sarah Broom, bell hooks, Nikki Giovanni, Audre Lorde, Joy Harjo, Julia Alvarez, and Yehuda Amichai. But I could go on forever. I’ve split this list into three sections — nonfiction, fiction, and poetry — and tried to pick books that I not only appreciate for their language and story, but also those that can help introduce students to different styles of writing and elements of genre.
Nonfiction
Fiction
Poetry
If you’re looking for other books to read that shake up traditional reading lists, check out this post that explores women of color who should be added to the literary canon, and this post with high school reading suggestions, which is a bit older but still full of wonderful recs!
