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On Morrison

Author Namwali Serpell
Hardcover
$32.00 US
Random House Group | Hogarth
6-1/8"W x 9-1/4"H
On sale Jan 27, 2026 | 400 Pages | 9780593732915
Grades 9-12 + AP/IB
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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 writer—and 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 you’ve never encountered her before, a journey through her oeuvre—her fiction and criticism, as well as her lesser-known dramatic works and poetry—with 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.
© Peg Skorpinksi
Namwali Serpell was 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 the Los Angeles Times’s Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction. Her second novel, The Furrows, was a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle Award and selected as one of The New York Times Ten Best Books of the Year. Her book of criticism, Stranger Faces, was a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle Award. A recipient of a 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. View titles by Namwali Serpell
“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 Times bestselling author of There’s Always This Year

About

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 writer—and 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 you’ve never encountered her before, a journey through her oeuvre—her fiction and criticism, as well as her lesser-known dramatic works and poetry—with 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

© Peg Skorpinksi
Namwali Serpell was 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 the Los Angeles Times’s Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction. Her second novel, The Furrows, was a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle Award and selected as one of The New York Times Ten Best Books of the Year. Her book of criticism, Stranger Faces, was a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle Award. A recipient of a 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. View titles by Namwali Serpell

Praise

“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 Times bestselling author of There’s Always This Year

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