Reading challenges are a fun way to spice up your reading routine. They help you discover new books and push yourself to read a little more. Short Story Book Club has held reading challenges since 2018 via Instagram, but 2021 will be the first year that we will also host the reading challenge on the Short Story Book Club website.
The theme for this year’s reading challenge is inspired by a famous YouTuber who calls herself Evelyn from the Internets. While she is not affiliated with Short Story Book Club, one of her recent videos poking fun at the desire many of us have to simply read more each year got me thinking. In the video, she admits to not having read much last year even despite the extra time we’ve all had because of COVID-19. So she calls a reading hotline for recommendations. The hotline gives her several Afrofuturistic titles.
Like Evelyn from the Internets, I think I could have spent a little more time reading last year, and like many people, I’m curious to learn more about African-American perspectives. So this year’s challenge will be all about discovering short stories written by and featuring African-American authors and/or characters.
To participate you simply need to choose one short story each month that meets the criteria of one of the prompts below. You can use your story to meet the requirements for other reading challenges that you may also be part of.
| January | A memoir by an African-American writer |
| February | An African-American love story |
| March | A biography about an African-American person |
| April | A graphic novel with African-American characters |
| May | A story about parenthood (motherhood or fatherhood) from an African-American perspective |
| June | A story by an African-American author who also identifies as LGBTQ |
| July | A science fiction or fantasy story by an African-American author |
| August | A mystery or thriller by an African-American author |
| September | A story about an African-American girl or boy of any age |
| October | A zombie story written by an African-American author |
| November | A story about an African-American family |
| December | A story written by or about an African-American person from your own city or state |
To share your progress, join us on Instagram. Follow us @shortstorybookclub then comment on one of our weekly Instagram posts dedicated to that month’s challenge. Just write the title of the story you read and a few sentences about why you liked it or not. As a bonus, I will select one commenter each week at random to receive one Amazon Kindle book by the featured author of the week. Winners will be announced on Instagram and will have 48 hours to provide an e-mail address to receive a copy of the book.
Happy reading!
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