A Q&A with Aaron Caycedo-Kimura | I teach Introduction to Creative Writing at Trinity College in Hartford, CT, where most of my students are freshmen and sophomores. The goal of the course is to give the students a strong foundation in writing poetry, short fiction, and short creative nonfiction, and to introduce them to the joy and benefits that creative writing can have in their lives. I encourage them to use their life experiences and imagination to help develop their unique voices. Read more →

A Q&A with Roque Raquel Salas Rivera | I teach at the University of Puerto Rico. My students are almost all Puerto Rican, and I teach a variety of courses on Gender Studies, Cinema and Human Rights, Puerto Rican History and National Thought, Introduction to Literature—a wide range. I hold a PhD in Comparative Literature and Literary Theory from the University of Pennsylvania, and my dissertation focused on three poets: Julia de Burgos, Sotero Rivera Avilés, and Ángela María Dávila Malavé. I focus on anticolonial movements and decolonial poetics and have a strong interest in literature and poetry, which I integrate into most of my courses. Read more →

By Christian Coleman | It wasn’t just Black History Month that Google Calendar removed from its holiday list. They did away with Women’s History Month, too. Just check your phones. In true fashion of an avowed fascist’s pick me, Big Tech was thorough with the forty-seventh administration’s anti-DEI scourge. But we said it once and we’ll say it again: We don’t need you to recognize Women’s History Month. Keep on with pandering to the patriarchy as we keep this party rolling. Read more →

By Kyle T. Mays | The discourse of Black Power and Red Power existed side by side. The phrase “Black Power” emerged as a rallying cry in Greenwood, Mississippi, in June 1966, in a speech by Stokely Carmichael during the March Against Fear, which was organized after the shooting of James Meredith. While there were earlier iterations of “Black Power,” Carmichael popularized it. In “Black Power: The Politics of Liberation,” Carmichael and Charles Hamilton wrote, “The adoption of the concept of Black Power is one of the most legitimate and healthy developments in American politics and race relations in our time. . . . It is a call for black people in this country to unite, to recognize their heritage, to build a sense of community. It is a call for black people to begin to define their own goals, to lead their own organizations and to support those organizations. It is a call to reject the racist institutions and values of this society.” Read more →

By Gayatri Patnaik | Beacon Press sides with the trans and nonbinary community always—and especially in these times. As a book publisher, we speak through our books and want to lift up authors we have had the privilege of publishing over the last thirty years who affirm trans and nonbinary lives and identities. Read more →

By Catherine Tung and Perpetua Cannistraro | It was with extraordinary sadness that we learned that our author, Danielle Legros Georges, passed away in her Dorchester home on February 11 after a years-long battle with stage-four breast cancer. Her partner, Tom Laughlin, and her brothers, Gerard, Bernard, and Stephan, were with her. We are honored to have published her final book, ”Three Leaves, Three Roots,” and will find ways in the coming days, weeks, and beyond to celebrate the Poet laureate of Boston (2015-2019) and her work. Read more →

By Christian Coleman | Did you check your phones? Is it any shock that Google Calendar genuflected to the current scorched-earth administration’s anti-DEI tour and removed Black History Month from its holiday list during Black History Month? Is it a shock that they claimed their holiday list wasn’t “globally scalable or sustainable?” Talk about Big Tech being an avowed fascist’s pick me. Doublespeak and all. Well, guess what, Google Calendar? We don’t need you to recognize Black History Month. Read more →

By Mei Su Bailey | In 2029, Beacon Press will celebrate 175 years of continuous book publishing. In the lead up to that milestone, the Press is drawing from its rich publishing history to reissue a selection of core titles that remain relevant to readers today. The series, “Beacon Press Classics,” will be released throughout 2025 and beyond, beginning with four titles slated for February 4. Read more →

A Q&A with Jeanne Theoharis and Gayatri Patnaik | When I published the original edition, I did so without being able to see a cache of Rosa Parks’s papers that had been held for years by Guernsey’s auction following a dispute over her estate. In late 2014, Howard Buffett, horrified by a news story about how Rosa Parks’s papers and effects were being held by this auction house, instructed his foundation to act, bought them and then donated the papers and photographs to the Library of Congress. Read more →

Primarily known as the president of Planned Parenthood and champion of reproductive rights, Cecile Richards was a feminist activist on more than one front. She brought her A-game to intersectionality in several social justice movements and political arenas. She deserves all the accolades and recognition, the most recent of which was the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Joe Biden at the White House last November. Read more →

A Q&A with Cheryl L. Neely | When I wrote my first book, “You’re Dead—So What?: Media, Police, and the Invisibility of Black Women as Victims of Homicide,” I shared the story of the murder of my schoolmate and friend, Michelle Kimberly Jackson in 1984 in the book’s prologue, focusing on the lack of media coverage and police response it garnered. Her case was solved a few years after the book was released and almost forty years after she was killed. Read more →

A Q&A with Danielle Legros Georges | I recently took an early retirement after teaching graduate students for two decades at Lesley University. When I taught, I was interested in activating the prior knowledge of my students, understanding that they had much to contribute to the learning spaces we were co-creating and supporting their learning goals within the context of broader curricula. Another goal of mine was aiming to provide access to content through multiple methods and lenses. Read more →

By Christian Coleman | And the New Year’s category is . . . Transformation! As the oligarchs of the free world steer us on a rocky ride toward dire changes we didn’t want, we’ll be focused on changing ourselves for the greater good. What shall we work on? Expanding our minds about what Buddhism is and what it has to offer? Ditching the me-centric trend of girlboss feminism? Renegotiating our relationship with social media? Beefing up at the gym without the macho trappings? This handful of titles from Beacon’s catalog will set us on the runway of life to get tens across the board for progress and self-reinvention! Read more →

Whew! Now that we are shutting the door on that messy guest called 2024, we are officially in our unwind and imbibe era until further notice. Join us, won’t you? Because your books should be as good as your booze. We asked our staff members which beverage, cocktail, or mocktail they would pair with their favorite Beacon book, and they did not disappoint. Read more →

By Christian Coleman | If last Christmas, you gave someone your heart, and the very next day, they gave it away, this year, to save yourself from tears, you’ll give it to your TBR list! ALL our books are 30% off through December 31 during our holiday sale! Read more →

I’ve always been interested in storytelling, but it wasn’t until undergrad that I really learned about the labor that goes into publishing and how gratifying the process can be. Beacon has consistently introduced me to authors I’ve ended up loving, such as Gayl Jones and Alicia Kennedy, so when the opportunity to be an editorial intern opened up, I jumped at it and here I am. Read more →

By Atef Abu Saif | All of a sudden, with the resumption of war, Khan Younis has become the Israeli’s primary target. It’s like they have followed me here. Last night, shelling and missile strikes could be heard on all sides. I hadn’t seen a ‘ring of fire’ style attack since I left the north, but as I lay on Mamoun’s floor, trying to sleep, the orchestra of war struck up again. Likewise, the old habits kicked in: counting the attacks, speculating on the types of rockets being used, wondering where each strike landed. Read more →

By Christian Coleman | Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz’s OG text has had more than one life. Published in 2014, “An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States” is the third installment of Beacon’s ReVisioning History series, created by Beacon Press director Gayatri Patnaik. Now, a decade later, there is more than one way to read and radically reframe four hundred years of US history through the lens of Native American struggle and resistance. The book has even been adapted to two other genres, too! Read more →

By Christian Coleman | It’s going to be another four years of accelerated survival mode. The results of the election greenlit the sequel of the orange demagogue franchise we didn’t want. And now we need to brace ourselves for it. However, the frustration, the anger, and the grief from the spoils of November 5 are still raw. As such, some recuperation is in order. Facing the sequel can wait. Read more →

By Atef Abu Saif | I spent three hours this morning walking the streets, just walking and reflecting on things. Last night was another violent one. The siege is closing in on al-Shifa. Yesterday the administrators had to excavate a mass grave in front of the building to bury all the dead in, whilst trying not to be shot in the process. Closer to home, we heard renewed attacks on the nearby Indonesian Hospital in the early hours. Many civilian houses were hit. People’s access to that hospital has become impossible. Read more →