Magically Black and Other Essays

In this engaging follow-up to How to Make a Slave and Other Essays, the recipient of the PEN/New England Award for Nonfiction and finalist for the National Book Award sharply examines and explains black life and culture with equal parts candor and humor.

Jerald Walker elegantly blends personal revelation and cultural critique to create a bracing and often humorous examination of Black American life, with particular emphasis on the meaning of blackness and the variety of ways Black identities are formed. He thoughtfully addresses the inherent complexities of such eclectic topics as incarceration, home renovations, gentrification, the crip walk, pimping, and the rise of the MAGA movement, approaching them through various Black perspectives, including that of husband, father, teacher, and writer. The collection’s overarching theme is captured in the titular essay, which examines the culture of heroic action African Americans created in response to their enslavement and oppression, giving proof to Albert Murray’s observation that the “fire in the forging process . . . for all its violence, does not destroy the metal that becomes the sword.”

Reviews:

“With this book, Walker joins great essayists like Ralph Ellison and James Alan McPherson in imagining and explaining why and how the American culture ‘we have created’ is the truest embodiment of our identity. Magically Black affirms Jerald Walker’s status as a national treasure.”—Whitney Terrell, author of The Good Lieutenant

“Walker’s intellectual acuity or indignation at injustice or resolute self-examination or scathing, leavening sense of humor alone would make the essays in Magically Black well worth reading. Combined, those qualities elevate his meticulous, impassioned parsings of would-be mundane incidents . . . into what should be understood as contemporary prophecy.”—Paul Harding, author of Tinkers and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction

Product Details:

Format: Paperback

Published: 23rd Oct 2025 by Harper Collins

ISBN: 9780063161047