Oprah announced today that her latest selection for Oprah’s Book Club—her 92nd—is The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois, by poet Honorée Fanonne Jeffers. Though Jeffers has published five poetry collections, including The Age of Phillis, which won the 2020 NAACP Image Award and was longlisted for the National Book Award, The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois is her debut novel. It’s being released by Harper Collins.
The multi-generational saga, which spans the entire breadth of African American history, has received stunning pre-publication reviews for its scope and ambition. The novel’s primary protagonist, Ailey Pearl Garfield, provides the lens through which we see a woman grappling with both the desire to break free from her family to establish her own identity, and to probe secrets that have been kept too long in the dark.
Harper The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois: A Novel
Oprah said of the book: “I was enraptured by the story of this modern Black family, and how author Honorée Fanonne Jeffers interweaves the larger fabric of historical trauma with that family’s ancestral tale—of tragedy, triumph, and also of the legacy of hidden abuse. But this is Ailey’s story, too, and through her we are offered new learnings about colorism, aspiration, the role of matriarchy, and what it is to be a woman who’s ‘not to be trifled with.’ She’s a heroine for the ages.”
The announcement of the pick was made in partnership with Apple, and an in-depth conversation between Oprah and Jeffers—who teaches creative writing and literature at the University of Oklahoma—will air exclusively on September 24 on Apple TV+.
When Oprah called Jeffers to share that she’d chosen the book to be her latest OBC selection, the author—who spent 11 years working on the novel—didn’t believe it was actually Oprah on the other end of the phone. “Classic fun,” is how Oprah described the moment. But soon they were discussing why Oprah related so personally to the saga and how much they had in common, especially being born Black in the South and all that entailed—the food, the landscape, the storytelling, and, of course, slavery’s ever-looming specter. And they shared this, as well: Both Oprah and Jeffers are sexual abuse survivors.
Oprah’s Book Club connects a worldwide community of readers to stories that truly matter by today’s most thought-provoking authors. To join in the weekly discussions with Oprah and others, follow @oprahsbookclub on Instagram and Facebook and #ReadWithUs.
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Leigh Haber is Vice President, Books, Oprah Daily and O Quarterly. She is also Director of Oprah's Book Club.
