Beyond the West
A recommended reading list compiled by students and faculty. These books bring readers around the world. We welcome contributions to this list. Please email suggestions to writing@bennington.edu
- Aminatta Forna | The Hired Man
- Aminatta Forna | The Memory of Love
- Leslie Marmon | Silko Ceremony
- Louise Erdrich | The Plague of Doves
- Louise Erdrich | The Round House
- Naguib Mahfouz | Adrift on the Nile
- David Grossman | See Under Love
- Anita Amirrezvani | The Blood of Flowers
- Manoucher Parvin | Dardadel: Rumi, Hafez and Love in New York
- Shahrnush Parispur | Women Without Men
- Orhan Pamuk | Snow
- Orhan Pamuk | My Name is Red
- Orhan Pamuk | The Museum of Innocence
- Elias Khoury | Yalo
- Elias Khoury | Gate of the Sun
- Hanif Abdurraquib | They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us
- Hanif Abdurraquib | A Fortune for Your Disaster
- Naguib Mahfouz | The Children of Gebelawi
- Amos Oz | Black Box
- Amos Oz | Falling Out of Time
- A.B. Yehoshua | Mr. Mani
- A.B. Yehoshua | A Late Divorce
- Rudolf Anaya | Tortuga
- Natalie Diaz | When My Brother Was an Aztec
- Monica Youn | Blackacre
- Jamel Brinkley | A Lucky Man
- Christina Garcia | Monkey Hunting
- Julia Alvarez | How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents
- Ana CastilloSo | Far From God
- Sandra Cisneros | The House on Mango Street
- Daniel Alarcon | War by Candlelight
- Isabel Allende | The House of Spirits
- Rudolf Anaya | Bless Me Ultima
- Junot Diaz | The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
- Christina Garcia | Dreaming in Cuban
- Oscar Hijuelos | The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love
- Gabriel Garcia Marquez | One Hundred Years of Solitude
- Gabriel Garcia Marquez | Memories of My Melancholy Whores
- Gabriel Garcia Marquez | Of Love and Other Demons
- Gabriel Garcia Marquez | Chronicle of a Death Foretold
- Gabriel Garcia Marquez | Love in the Time of Cholera
- Daniel Alarcon | War by Candlelight
- Jorge Luis Borges | The Aleph
- Julio Cortazar | Hopscotch
- Machado de Assis | The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas
- Machado de Assis | Esau and Jacob
- Carlos Fuentes | The Death of Artemio Cruz
- Carlos Fuentes | Aura
- Carlos Fuentes | The Old Gringo
- Juan Rulfo | Pedro Paramo
- Juan Rulfo | The Burning Plain and Other Stories
- Mario Vargas| LlosaThe Time of the Hero
- Mario Vargas | LlosaConversation in the Cathedral
- Chang-Rae Lee | Native Speaker
- Chang-Rae Lee | On Such a Full Sea
- Min jin Lee | Free Food for Millionaires
- Danzy Senna | Caucasia
- Arundhati Roy | The God of Small Things
- Jhumpa Lahiri | Interpreter of Maladies
- Vikram Chandra | Love and Longing in Bombay
- Kiran Desai '93 | The Inheritance of Loss
- Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni | Arranged Marriage
- Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni | The Mistress of Spices
- Amitav Ghosh | Sea of Poppies
- Amitav Ghosh | The Glass Palace
- Jumpha Lahiri | The Namesake
- Jumpha Lahiri | Unaccustomed Earth
- Jumpha Lahiri | Interpreter of Maladies
- Bharati Mukherjee | Jasmine
- Bharati Mukherjee | Darkness
- Bharati Mukherjee | New Miss India
- Salman Rushdie | Shame
- Salman Rushdie | The Satanic Verses
- Amit Chaudhuri | The Immortals
- Anita Desai | Clear Light of Day
- Anita Desai | In Custody
- Rohinton Mistry | A Fine Balance
- Rohinton Mistry | Family Matters
- Rohinton Mistry | Such a Long Journey
- R.K. Narayan | The English Teacher
- R.K. Narayan | The Painter of Signs
- Vikram Seth | The Golden Gate
- Vikram Seth | A Suitable Boy
- Rabindranath Tagore | The Home and the World
- Salman Rushdie | Midnight's Children
- Fae Myenne Ng | Bone
- Gish Jen | Typical American
- Gish Jen | Who's Irish?
- Ha Jin | Waiting
- Ha Jin | The Crazed
- Yiyun Li | A Thousand Years of Good Prayers
- Yiyun Li | Kinder than Solitude
- Amy Tan | The Joy Luck Club
- Amy Tan | The Kitchen God's Wife
- Jamaica Kincaid | Annie John
- V.S. Naipaul | Miguel Street
- Maryse Conde | Heremakhonon
- Joseph Zobel | Black Shaq Alley
- Paule Marshall | Brown Girl, Brownstones
- Paule Marshall | Praisesong for the Widow
- Jacques Roumain | Masters of the Dew
- Edwige Danticat | Breath, Eyes, Memory
- Edwige Danticat | Krik? Krak!
- Taiye Selasi | Ghana Must Go
- Helen Oyeyemi | The Opposite House
- Helen Oyeyemi | White Is For Witching
- Zadie Smith | White Teeth
- Zadie Smith | On Beauty
- Haruki Murakami | Kafka on the Shore
- Kenzaburo Oe | Shoot the Kids
- Yukio Mishima | The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea
- Yukio Mishima | Way of the Samurai
- Haruki Murakami | The Wind-up Bird Chronicle
- Yasunari Kawabata | Snow Country
- Yasunari Kawabata | Thousand Cranes
- Murasaki Shikibu | The Tale of Genji
- Junichuro Tanizaki | The Makioka Sisters
- Junichuro Tanizaki | Diary of a Mad Old Man
- Banana Yoshimoto | Kitchen
- Banana Yoshimoto | The Lake
- Cao Zueqin | The Dream of the Red Chamber
- William Saroyan | The Human Comedy
- William Saroyan | My Name is Aram
- David Anthony Durham | Gabriel's Story
- Octavia Butler | Xenogenesis (Trilogy)
- Ralph Ellison | Invisible Man
- Christopher Paul Curtis | The Watsons Go to Birmingham
- Toni Morrison | Beloved
- Toni Cade Bambarra | Gorilla, My Love
- Toni Cade Bambarra | The Salt Eaters
- Wesley Brown | Tragic Magic
- Wesley Brown | Darktown Strutters
- Wesley Brown | Push Comes to Shove
- Arna Bontemps | Black Thunder
- Octavia Butler | Kindred
- Octavia Butler | Parable of the Sower
- Alice Childress | A Short Walk
- Alice Childress | A Hero Ain't Nothin' But a Sandwich
- Ernest Gaines | A Lesson Before Dying
- Ernest Gaines | A Gathering of Old Men
- Thomas Glave | Whose Song and Other Stories
- Langston Hughes | The Ways of White Folks: Short Stories of Langston Hughes
- Zora Neale Hurston | Their Eyes Were Watching God
- Charles R. Johnson | Middle Passage
- Charles R. Johnson | The Sorcerer's Apprentice
- Edward P. Jones | The Known World
- Edward P. Jones | All Aunt Hagar's Children
- Jamaica Kincaid | See Now Then
- Nella Larsen | Quicksand
- Nella Larsen | Passing
- Clarence Major | One Flesh
- Claude McKay | Home to Harlem
- James Alan McPherson | Hue and Cry
- James Alan McPherson | Elbow Room
- Lucille Meriwether | Daddy Was a Numbers Runner
- Toni Morrison | Song of Solomon
- Toni Morrison | Sula
- Toni Morrison | Jazz
- Walter Mosle | Devil in a Blue Dress
- Gloria Naylor | The Women of Brewster Place
- Gloria Naylor | Mama Day
- ZZ Packer | Drinking Coffee Elsewhere
- Ishmael Reed | Mumbo Jumbo
- Sapphire | Push
- Ntozake Shange | Sassafras
- Jean Toomer | Cane
- Alice Walker | Meridian
- Alice Walker | The Color Purple
- Margaret Walker | Jubilee
- Colson Whitehead | The Intuitionist
- Colson Whitehead | John Henry Days
- John Edgar Wideman | Sent for You Yesterday
- John Edgar Wideman | Philadelphia Fire
- Richard Wright | Native Son
- Richard Wright | Black Boy
- Amos Tutuola | The Palm Wine Drinkard
- Teju Cole | Open City
- Nuneddin Farah | Maps, Gifts, Secrets
- Uzodinma Iweala | Beasts of No Nation
- Zakes Mda | The Heart of Redness
- Zakes Mda | The Madonaa of Excelsior
- Dinaw Murayama | All Our Names
- Okey Ndibi | Arrow of Rain
- NoViolet Vulawayo | We Need New Names
- Penguin Anthology of Contemporary African WritingGods and Soldiers
- Chinua Achebe | Things Fall Apart
- Chinua Achebe | No Longer At Ease
- Chinua Achebe | Arrow of God
- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie | Purple Hibiscus
- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie | Half of a Yellow Sun
- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie | Americanah
- Buchi Emecheta | Second Class Citizen
- Buchi Emecheta | The Bride Price
- Ben Okri | The Famished Road
- Ben Okri | Songs of Enchantment
- Yvonne Adhiombo OwuorDust
- Yvonne Vera | Butterfly Burning
- Yvonne Vera | The Stone Virgins
- Ousmane Sembene | God's Bits of Wood
- Bessie Head | Maru
- Bessie Head | A Bewitched Crossroad
- John Dominis Holt | Waimea Summer
- Milton Murayama | All I Asking For is My Body
- Azar Nafizi | Reading "Lolita" in Tehran
- David Grossman | The Yellow Wind
- Amos Oz | A Tale of Love and Darkness (memoir)
- Gloria E. Anzaldua | Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza
- Richard Rodriguez | Hunger of Memory (memoir)
- Gabriel Garcia Marquez | Living to Tell the Tale
- Ved Mehta | Mamaji
- Ved Mehta | Papaji (called Daddyji?)
- Ved Mehta | All For Love
- Pankaj Mishra | The Romantics
- Pankaj Mishra | From the Ruins of Empire
- Eva Hoffman | Lost in Translation
- Frantz Fanon | Black Skin, White Masks
- George Lamming | In the Castle of My Skin
- Audre Lorde | The Cancer Journals
- Claude McKay | My Green Hills of Jamaica (memoir)
- Aime Cesaire | Memorandum on My Martinique
- Franz Fanon (repeated --- see 215) | Black Skin, White Masks
- Franz Fanon | The Wretched of the Earth
- Sei Shonagon | The Pillow Book
- Michael J. Arlen | Exiles
- Michael J. Arlen | Passage to Ararat
- Peter Balakian | Black Dog of Fate
- Alex Haley and Malcom X | The Autobiography of Malcom X
- Bell Hooks | All About Love
- Rickey Vincent | Funk: The Music, The People, and the Rhythm of the One
- Robert L. Allen | The Port Chicago Mutiny
- W.E.B. Du Bois | The Souls of Black Folk
- James Baldwin | Another Country
- James Baldwin | The Fire Next Time
- James Baldwin | Nobody Knows My Name
- Claude Brown | Manchild in the Promised Land (memoir)
- Claude Brown | Children of Ham
- Toi Derricotte | The Black Notebooks (memoir)
- Harriet Jacobs | Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
- Albert Murray | Trading Twelves: The Selected Letters of Albert Murry and Ralph Ellison
- Piri Thomas | Down These Mean Streets
- Desmond TutuNo Future Without Forgiveness
- J.M. Coetzee | Youth
- Ishmael Beah | A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
- Nelson Mandela | Long Walk to Freedom
- Donald Woods | Biko (Biography of murdered activist Steve Biko)
- Susan Sontag | Regarding the Pain of Others
- Yehuda AmichaiSelected Poetry of Yehuda Amichai
- Mahmoud Darwish | The Butterfly's Burden
- Mahmoud Darwish | Unfortunately, It was Paradise: Selected Poems
- Farugh Farrokhzad | Sin: Selected Poems of Farugh Farrokhzad
- Tino Villanueva | Scene From the Movie Giant
- Martin Espada | Rebellion is the Circle of a Lover's Hands
- Cathy Park Hong | Dance dance Revolution
- Cathy Park Hong | Engine Empire
- Vijay Seshadri | 3 Selections
- Vijay Seshadri | New and Selected Poems
- June Jordan | Directed by Desire: The Complete Poems of June Jordan
- Audre Lorde | Chosen Poems Old and New
- Claude McKay | Selected Poems of Claude McKay
- Gregory Djanikian | So I Will Till the Ground
- Peter Balakian | Ziggurat
- Amiri Baraka | Somebody Blew Up America and Other Poems
- Arna Bontemps | Hold Fast to Dreams: Poems Old and New
- Lucille Clifton | Blessing the Boats: New and Collected Poems
- Countee Cullen | Collected Poems
- Toi Derricotte | The Undertaker's Daughter
- Toi Derricotte | Tender
- Rita Dove | Sonata Mulattica (this cover is so beautiful!)
- Rita Dove | American Smooth
- Cornelius Eady | Brutal Imagination
- Cornelius Eady | Victims of the Latest Dance Craze
- Nikki Giovanni | Bicycles: Love Poems
- Nikki Giovanni | Chasing Utopia: a Hybrid
- Langston Hughes | The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes
- Major Jackson | Holding Company
- Major Jackson | Hoops
- Major Jackson | Leaving Saturn
- Yusef Komunyakaa | Copacetic
- Yusef Komunyakaa | Neon Vernacular
- Clarence Major | Configurations: New and Selected Poems
- E. Ethelbert Miller | First Light: New and Selected Poems
- Ishmael Reed | New and Selected Poems
- Ntozake Shange | For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide
- Tracy K. Smith | Life on Mars
- Margaret Walker | For My People
- Dennis Brutus | Poetry and Protest: A Dennis Brutus Reader
- Wole Soyinka | Samarkand and Other Markets I Have Known
- Carolyn Forche | The Country Between Us
- Kimiko Hahn | Toxic Flora
- Kimiko Hahn | The Narrow Road to the Interior
- Richard Blanco | City of a Hundred Fires; Looking for the Gulf Motel
- Joan Nayiyuk Kane | Hyperboreal
- Afaa Michael Weaver | The Government of Nature; The Plum Flower Dance
- Quan Barry | Water Puppets
- Wanda Coleman | The World Falls Away
- Nicole Terez Dutton | If One of Us Should Fall
- Ross Gay | Bringing the Shovel Down
- Nathalie Handel | Poet in Andalucia
- Terrance Hayes | Hip Logic; Lighthead; Wind in a Box
- Etheridge Knight | The Essential Etheridge Knight
- Colleen McElroy | Here I Throw Down My Heart
- Laura Reed | Instructions For My Mother's Funeral
- Paisley Rekdal | Animal Eye
- Glenn Shaheen | Predatory
- Reginald Shepherd | Fata Morgana
Recent Books by Alumni, Students, and Faculty (Ongoing, updated August 2020)
- What It Is: Race, Family, and One Thinking Black Man's Blues | Clifford Thompson, Faculty
- Air Traffic: A Memoir of Ambition and Manhood in America | Gregory Pardlo, Faculty
- Be Recorder | Carmen Giménez Smith, Faculty
- Milk and Filth | Carmen Giménez Smith, Faculty
- Betwixt-and-Between: Essays on the Writing Life | Jenny Boully, Faculty
- The Book of Beginnings and Endings | Jenny Boully, Faculty
- This Will Be My Undoing: Living at the Intersection of Black, Female, and Feminist in (White) America | Morgan Jerkins, MFA '16
- Seems Like a Mighty Long Time | Angela Jackson, MFA '12
- Starlight & Error | Remica Bingham-Risher, MFA '05
- Cape Verdean Blues | Shauna Barbosa, MFA '17
- The Tradition | Jericho Brown, June '19 Commencement Speaker
- A Lucky Man | Jamel Brinkley, June '19 Visiting Writer
- How We Fight for Our Lives | Saeed Jones, June '15 Commencement Speaker