29 Best American Books
American is a popular category for many book lovers. Our team at Speechify has curated a list of the top American audiobooks everyone must read.
See the top 29 American audiobooks below.
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You Are Only Just Beginning
- By: Morgan Harper Nichols
- Length: 2 hours 17 minutes
- Publisher: Zondervan
- Publish date: February 14, 2023
- Language: English
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5(3 ratings)
5(3 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0014.99 USDRead by the author with eleven audiobook-exclusive bonus poems! From bestselling author and beloved artist Morgan Harper Nichols, this collection of poetry empowers you to embrace your next adventure with confidence and grace. Sometimes it’sRead by the author with eleven audiobook-exclusive bonus poems!
From bestselling author and beloved artist Morgan Harper Nichols, this collection of poetry empowers you to embrace your next adventure with confidence and grace. Sometimes it’s difficult to take that first step into your future and embrace the unknown. In this collection of poetry, Morgan reimagines the classic heroine‚Äôs journey‚Äîfrom the very first call to adventure, through trials, hardships, and new relationships, all the way back home‚Äîand offers key lessons and affirmations to encourage and equip you every step of the way. As you travel your own journey of self-discovery, you’re invited to:
- Cultivate the courage you need to follow your passions
- Develop curiosity about the natural world around you
- Find comfort and inspiration for the inevitable trials on your journey
- Reflect on how your past has prepared you
- Step out in wonder and faith, knowing there is more for you
 
Look for the previous books in this series: All Along You Were Blooming and How Far You Have Come.
 
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Selected Poems Aldous Huxley
- By: Aldous Huxley
- Narrator: Nano Nagle
- Length: 1 hours 0 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2022
- Language: English
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5(1 ratings)
5(1 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.004.95 USDA beautiful selection of poems from a young man who would become a brilliant author and essayist, a thinker who was very much at the forefront of changes in the twentieth century. Here is a book that could be carried in your pocket and readA beautiful selection of poems from a young man who would become a brilliant author and essayist, a thinker who was very much at the forefront of changes in the twentieth century. Here is a book that could be carried in your pocket and read quickly–a poem of innocent love or remembrance of events that make the boy become the man.
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Relations
- By: Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond
- Narrator: Tshego Khutsoane
- Length: 14 hours 44 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: January 17, 2023
- Language: English
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4.9(10 ratings)
4.9(10 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0027.99 USDFresh and electrifying–stories, poems, and essays by African and diaspora writers, edited by author Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond. Relations punctures the human illusion of separation. New and established storytellers reshape the narratives thatFresh and electrifying–stories, poems, and essays by African and diaspora writers, edited by author Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond.
Relations punctures the human illusion of separation. New and established storytellers reshape the narratives that divide and subjugate, revealing the truth of our shared humanity despite differences in language, identity, class, gender, and beyond. This vital anthology is Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond’s striking vision of a meeting place of perspectives, centered in the African and diaspora experience.
In a post-Black Panther world, it is an urgent and welcome embrace of the diversity of Blackness. A refreshing collection of genre-spanning literature, it offers a vibrant meditation on being–inviting connection across real and imagined borders, and celebration of the most profound relations.
Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.
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River Rules
- By: Stevie Z. Fischer
- Narrator: Byron Wagner
- Length: 8 hours 21 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2020
- Language: English
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4.69(26 ratings)
4.69(26 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.95 USDRiver Rules is a small-town environmental suspense novel with a deep heart and powerful conscience. What the housing bubble didn’t break in Bridgeville–a small New England community blessed by the Connecticut River–greed,River Rules is a small-town environmental suspense novel with a deep heart and powerful conscience. What the housing bubble didn’t break in Bridgeville–a small New England community blessed by the Connecticut River–greed, double-dealing, and rapid-fire change just might. Peter Russo, a part-time farmer and full-time rambler with his rescue dog, has a knack for conflict, and a burning desire to protect Bridgeville’s land and water from exploitation.
His best buddy, John Tomassi, a local cop, doesn’t want to be his babysitter–nor does his brother, Jeff. Peter’s ex-lover, Carmen, has no use for him as she doubles-down on her profitable apple orchard. But Rachel, his niece, needs his partnership in a food truck. Peter’s trouble with Bridgeville’s bureaucracy reunites him with two of his former club baseball players, Marco Torres, now on the wrong side of the law, and Kenny Johnson, a young cop. Peter’s helping hand not only gives Marco the chance he needs, but Marco and Kenny find that there’s more that connects them than divides them. The food truck is a lifeline to almost everyone except Nancy, Peter’s old friend, sinking fast from health issues and the aftermath of date rape.
Nobody’s famous and nobody’s rich except Brock Saunders, a local bully turned Ponzi-schemer and sexual predator. With Bridgeville life at the mercy of cultural crosswinds and economic forces seemingly beyond control, love, loss, baseball, and the search for truth create a spinning wheel of unexpected alliances, unsung heroes, and treachery.
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The Essential Dick Gregory
- By: Dick Gregory
- Narrator: Joe Morton
- Length: 8 hours 1 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: October 11, 2022
- Language: English
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4.58(10 ratings)
4.58(10 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0024.99 USDNarrated by Audie, Emmy, and NAACP(r) Image Award-winning actor, Joe Morton, and joined by Christian Gregory and Afrika K. Kenjyatta. A soulful, generation-defining collection of thought-provoking, agitating, and liberating works from Dick Gregory,Narrated by Audie, Emmy, and NAACP(r) Image Award-winning actor, Joe Morton, and joined by Christian Gregory and Afrika K. Kenjyatta.
A soulful, generation-defining collection of thought-provoking, agitating, and liberating works from Dick Gregory, the activist and author of sixteen books, including the classic bestseller Nigger: An Autobiography and the 2017 NAACP Image Award Winner, Defining Moments in Black History: Reading Between the Lies.
A true renaissance man, Richard Claxton “Dick” Gregory was one of the pioneering satirists of his generation, a reformer and brilliant spokesperson for the downtrodden and forgotten who dedicated his life to speaking unadulterated truth–and to improving ordinary lives. A revered human rights and environmental activist, fearsome and uncompromising social critic, lauded bestselling author, and beloved nutrition guru, Gregory aimed not only to educate souls, but to liberate them. His words shaped a generation and remain vital for our own turbulent times, offering wisdom to enlighten and inspire a new activist age.
This carefully curated anthology of selected writings reflects and celebrates Dick Gregory’s wisdom and his vision. Divided into three sections–Body, Mind, and Spirit–it includes previously unavailable transcriptions and excerpts taken from his sixteen books, fifteen albums and audio compilations, and more than 1,200 hours of archival video, including lectures, interviews, and comedic performances. It is a breathtaking tour through the life of one of America’s most prophetic and relevant cultural icons. The Essential Dick Gregory is a pointillistic portrait of a man who gave up a lucrative entertainment career to fight injustice on the front line of battle–leading protests and hunger strikes to end the Vietnam War and apartheid in South Africa; supporting civil rights, feminism, and Native Americans,; and addressing hunger, poverty, and police brutality.
This compelling volume will challenge your beliefs, allow you to see life in unexpected ways, and dare you to make the world a better place.
Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.
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The Gettysburg Address
- By: Abraham Lincoln
- Narrator: Robertson Dean
- Length: 3 minutes
- Publisher: Public Domain
- Publish date: January 02, 2018
- Language: English
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4.53(5875 ratings)
4.53(5875 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.007.99 USDThe Gettysburg Address, delivered by Lincoln on November 19, 1863 in the aftermath of a narrow, bloody Union victory at the Battle of Gettysburg, is considered one of the greatest speeches in American history. -
Will the Circle Be Unbroken?
- By: Sean Dietrich
- Length: 7 hours 7 minutes
- Publisher: Zondervan
- Publish date: March 10, 2020
- Language: English
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4.51(826 ratings)
4.51(826 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0021.99 USDFrom celebrated storyteller “Sean of the South” comes an unforgettable memoir of love, loss, the friction of family memories, and the unlikely hope that you’re gonna be alright. Sean Dietrich was twelve years old when he scatteredFrom celebrated storyteller “Sean of the South” comes an unforgettable memoir of love, loss, the friction of family memories, and the unlikely hope that you’re gonna be alright.
Sean Dietrich was twelve years old when he scattered his father’s ashes from the mountain range. His father was a man who lived for baseball, a steel worker with a ready wink, who once scaled a fifty-foot tree just to hang a tire swing for his son. He was also the stranger who tried to kidnap and kill Sean’s mother before pulling the trigger on himself. He was a childhood hero, now reduced to a man in a box.
Will the Circle Be Unbroken? is the story of what happens after the unthinkable, and the journey we all must make in finding the courage to stop the cycles of the past from laying claim to our future.
Sean was a seventh-grade drop-out, a dishwasher then a construction worker to help his mother and sister scrape by, and a self-described “nobody with a sad story behind him.” Yet he cannot deny the glimmers of life’s goodness even amid its rough edges. Such goodness becomes even harder to deny when Sean meets the love of his life at a fried chicken church potluck, and harder still when his lifelong love of storytelling leads him to stages across the southeast, where he is known and loved as “Sean of the South.”
A story that will stay with you long after the final page, Will the Circle Be Unbroken? testifies to the strength that lives within us all to make our peace with the past and look to the future with renewed hope and wonder.
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The Nightfields
- By: Joanna Klink
- Length: 1 hours 28 minutes
- Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
- Publish date: July 07, 2020
- Language: English
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4.48(78 ratings)
4.48(78 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.008.99 USDA new collection from a poet who has made “a body of work at once utterly lucid and breathtakingly urgent” (Louise Gluck). Joanna Klink’s fifth book begins with personal poems of loss–a tree ripped out by a windstorm, aA new collection from a poet who has made “a body of work at once utterly lucid and breathtakingly urgent” (Louise Gluck).
Joanna Klink’s fifth book begins with personal poems of loss–a tree ripped out by a windstorm, a friendship broken off after decades, the nearing death of parents. Other poems take on the cost of not loving fully, or are written from disbelief at the accumulation of losses and at the mercilessness of having, as one ages, to rule things out. There are elegies for friends, and a group of devotional poems. The Nightfields closes with “Night Sky,” thirty metaphysical poems inspired by the artist James Turrell’s Roden Crater, an extinct volcano in Arizona that Turrell has been transforming into an open-air observatory for the perception of time. The sequence unfolds as a series of revelations that begin in psychic fear and move gradually toward a sense of infinitude and connection.
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Inquire Within
- By: In-Q
- Length: 2 hours 17 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: March 31, 2020
- Language: English
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4.48(241 ratings)
4.48(241 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0013.99 USDIn this powerful and innovative book of poetry and wisdom, award-winning spoken-word poet, songwriter, and performer IN-Q inspires us to question everything we know and see around us and inside us, to discover what matters most. “PoetryIn this powerful and innovative book of poetry and wisdom, award-winning spoken-word poet, songwriter, and performer IN-Q inspires us to question everything we know and see around us and inside us, to discover what matters most.
“Poetry celebrates vulnerability as a strength rather than a weakness. It is a timeless form of storytelling that inspires connection and allows the audience to feel less alone. Experiencing ourselves through another person’s story creates empathy. And empathy is what the world needs most right now.”–IN-Q
Raised by a single mother in Los Angeles, Adam Schmalholz, known as IN-Q–In Question– discovered his love for poetry through hip-hop. At nineteen, he started performing at Da Poetry Lounge and helped build it into the largest open mic in the country. Since then, IN-Q has traveled the world capturing the hearts and minds of millions.
Inquire Within is an accessible, rhythmic, and transformative reading experience. In-Q’s poetry contemplates universal issues of love, loss, pain, forgiveness, and belief, and speaks to our complicated lives today, offering us a different way to think about ourselves and our world. Imaginative and highly visual, this beautifully designed work of art reflects IN-Q’s unique sensibility and includes inspirational call outs to challenge our hearts and minds. Profound in its simplicity, incandescent in its power, Inquire Within emotionally delivers on every page.
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Donald Hall: Prose & Poetry
- By: Donald Hall
- Narrator: Donald Hall
- Length: 3 hours 7 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2011
- Language: English
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4.48(32 ratings)
4.48(32 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0014.95 USDAuthor of more than thirty books of poetry and prose, Donald Hall performs here dozens of his best-loved poems, together with excerpts from six of his works of prose. Donald Hall has been writing poems for over fifty years and now stands as one ofAuthor of more than thirty books of poetry and prose, Donald Hall performs here dozens of his best-loved poems, together with excerpts from six of his works of prose. Donald Hall has been writing poems for over fifty years and now stands as one of America’s foremost poets. Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Robert Frost Medal of the Poetry Society of America, the New England Book Award for nonfiction, and former Poet Laureate of New Hampshire among other honors, Donald Hall gives each listener this gift of words–words painstakingly entwined with passion, energy and love. Prose & Poetry is a tour de force–an intimate convergence of poet, author, and listener.
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What Noise Against the Cane
- By: Desiree C. Bailey
- Narrator: Desiree C. Bailey
- Length: 1 hours 35 minutes
- Publisher: Dreamscape Media
- Publish date: January 25, 2022
- Language: English
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4.45(156 ratings)
4.45(156 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0017.99 USDThe 115th volume of the Yale Series of Younger Poets, What Noise Against the Cane is a lyric quest for belonging and freedom, weaving political resistance, Caribbean folklore, immigration, and the realities of Black life in America. Desiree C.The 115th volume of the Yale Series of Younger Poets, What Noise Against the Cane is a lyric quest for belonging and freedom, weaving political resistance, Caribbean folklore, immigration, and the realities of Black life in America. Desiree C. Bailey begins by reworking the epic in an oceanic narrative of bondage and liberation in the midst of the Haitian Revolution. The poems move into the contemporary Black diaspora, probing the mythologies of home, belief, nation, and womanhood. Series judge Carl Phillips observes that Bailey’s “poems argue for hope and faith equally… These are powerful poems, indeed, and they make a persuasive argument for the transformative powers of steady defiance.”
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Hamilton
- By: Lin-Manuel Miranda
- Narrator: Lin-Manuel Miranda
- Length: 6 hours 2 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: April 12, 2016
- Language: English
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4.45(48628 ratings)
4.45(48628 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0025.98 USDA backstage pass to the groundbreaking, hit musical Hamilton, winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and Eleven Tony Awards, including Best Musical, including the award-winning libretto, behind-the-scenes photos and interviews, and exclusiveA backstage pass to the groundbreaking, hit musical Hamilton, winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and Eleven Tony Awards, including Best Musical, including the award-winning libretto, behind-the-scenes photos and interviews, and exclusive footnotes from composer-lyricist-star Lin-Manuel Miranda, now streaming on Disney+ with the original cast.
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Lin-Manuel Miranda’s groundbreaking musical Hamilton is as revolutionary as its subject, the poor kid from the Caribbean who fought the British, defended the Constitution, and helped to found the United States. Fusing hip-hop, pop, R&B, and the best traditions of theater, this once-in-a-generation show broadens the sound of Broadway, reveals the storytelling power of rap, and claims our country’s origins for a diverse new generation.Hamilton: The Revolution gives readers an unprecedented view of both revolutions, from the only two writers able to provide it. Miranda, along with Jeremy McCarter, a cultural critic and theater artist who was involved in the project from its earliest stages — “since before this was even a show,” according to Miranda — traces its development from an improbable performance at the White House to its landmark opening night on Broadway six years later. In addition, Miranda has written more than 200 funny, revealing footnotes for his award-winning libretto, the full text of which is published here.
Their account features photos by the renowned Frank Ockenfels and veteran Broadway photographer, Joan Marcus; exclusive looks at notebooks and emails; interviews with Questlove, Stephen Sondheim, leading political commentators, and more than 50 people involved with the production; and multiple appearances by President Obama himself. The book does more than tell the surprising story of how a Broadway musical became a national phenomenon: It demonstrates that America has always been renewed by the brash upstarts and brilliant outsiders, the men and women who don’t throw away their shot.
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An Affair with Beauty: The Mystique of Howard Chandler Christy
- By: James Philip Head
- Narrator: Pamela Almand
- Length: 9 hours 37 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2019
- Language: English
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4.43(41 ratings)
4.43(41 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.95 USDFame, fortune, and beautiful models–Howard Chandler Christy had them all. Christy was the most famous American painter of the Jazz Age, a time when an elite brotherhood of New York artists dominated the publishing world. Christy had eclipsedFame, fortune, and beautiful models–Howard Chandler Christy had them all.
Christy was the most famous American painter of the Jazz Age, a time when an elite brotherhood of New York artists dominated the publishing world. Christy had eclipsed all of them with his “Christy Girl,” an idealized woman who redefined beauty, influenced fashion, and inspired generations of women. Illustrated in popular magazines, bestselling novels, and top-ranked newspapers, the “Christy Girl” transformed the artist into a household name.
In An Affair with Beauty, Christy once again comes to life through the eyes of Nancy Palmer Christy, his wife and former model, as she recounts her first Christmas with Howard and his family at his Ohio mansion in 1912.
She tells of Howard Christy’s early years studying art in near poverty in New York City and his sudden ascent to stardom as the top pupil of William Merritt Chase, the premier portrait painter in America. She describes his daring experiences with Teddy Roosevelt during the Spanish-American War in Cuba and his brush with death, no less than three times. The effects of the war profoundly transformed Howard, inspiring him to create his vision of beauty, the “Christy Girl,” which catapulted him to stardom.
When romance blossomed between artist and model, Howard was slow to seek a divorce from his estranged wife, Maebelle, jeopardizing Nancy’s desires and compelling her to uncover his scandalous past. As World War I broke out, Howard returned to New York City, which compelled Nancy to risk everything to reveal her true feelings for him.
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All Our Wild Wonder
- By: Sarah Kay
- Narrator: Sarah Kay
- Length: 7 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: March 13, 2018
- Language: English
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4.4(363 ratings)
4.4(363 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0012.98 USDFrom renowned poet Sarah Kay, a single volume poem perfect for teachers and mentors. All Our Wild Wonder is a vibrant tribute to extraordinary educators and a celebration of learning. The perfect gift for the mentors in our lives, this charming,From renowned poet Sarah Kay, a single volume poem perfect for teachers and mentors.
All Our Wild Wonder is a vibrant tribute to extraordinary educators and a celebration of learning. The perfect gift for the mentors in our lives, this charming, illustrated poem reminds us of the beauty in, and importance of, cultivating curiosity, creativity, and confidence in others.
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Notes of a Native Son
- By: James Baldwin
- Narrator: Ron Butler
- Length: 5 hours 3 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2015
- Language: English
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4.37(15279 ratings)
4.37(15279 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0016.95 USDAt last, a new audio edition of the book many have called James Baldwin’s most influential work! Written during the 1940s and early 1950s, when Baldwin was only in his twenties, the essays collected in Notes of a Native Son capture a view ofAt last, a new audio edition of the book many have called James Baldwin’s most influential work!
Written during the 1940s and early 1950s, when Baldwin was only in his twenties, the essays collected in Notes of a Native Son capture a view of black life and black thought at the dawn of the civil rights movement and as the movement slowly gained strength through the words of one of the most captivating essayists and foremost intellectuals of that era. Writing as an artist, activist, and social critic, Baldwin probes the complex condition of being black in America. With a keen eye, he examines everything from the significance of the protest novel to the motives and circumstances of the many black expatriates of the time, from his home in “The Harlem Ghetto” to a sobering “Journey to Atlanta.”
Notes of a Native Son inaugurated Baldwin as one of the leading interpreters of the dramatic social changes erupting in the United States in the twentieth century, and many of his observations have proven almost prophetic. His criticism on topics such as the paternalism of white progressives or on his own friend Richard Wright’s work is pointed and unabashed. He was also one of the few writing on race at the time who addressed the issue with a powerful mixture of outrage at the gross physical and political violence against black citizens and measured understanding of their oppressors, which helped awaken a white audience to the injustices under their noses. Naturally, this combination of brazen criticism and unconventional empathy for white readers won Baldwin as much condemnation as praise.
Notes is the book that established Baldwin’s voice as a social critic, and it remains one of his most admired works. The essays collected here create a cohesive sketch of black America and reveal an intimate portrait of Baldwin’s own search for identity as an artist, as a black man, and as an American.
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Nikki Giovanni: Love Poems & A Good Cry
- By: Nikki Giovanni
- Narrator: Nikki Giovanni
- Length: 2 hours 43 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: October 24, 2017
- Language: English
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4.37(125 ratings)
4.37(125 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0016.99 USDThe poetry of Nikki Giovanni has spurred movements, turned hearts and informed generations. She’s been hailed as a firebrand, a radical, a healer, and a sage; a wise and courageous voice who has spoken out on the sensitive issues, includingThe poetry of Nikki Giovanni has spurred movements, turned hearts and informed generations. She’s been hailed as a firebrand, a radical, a healer, and a sage; a wise and courageous voice who has spoken out on the sensitive issues, including race and gender, that touch our national consciousness.
Love Poems: Nikki reads a stunning collection of over twenty romantic, bold, and erotic love poems, expressing notions of love in ways that are delightfully unexpected and full of fearless passion and spirited wit. From the revolutionary “Seduction” to the tender “Just a Simple Declaration of Love,” and the elegiac “All Eyez on U,” written for Tupac Shakur, these poems embody the fearless passion and spirited wit for which Nikki Giovanni is beloved and revered.
A Good Cry: With her new collection Nikki offers listeners an intimate, affecting, and illuminating look at her personal history and the mysteries of her own heart. Reading her work, she takes us into her confidence, describing the joy and peril of aging and recalling the violence that permeated her parents’ marriage and her early life. Nikki also celebrates her good friend, Maya Angelou, and the many years of friendship, poetry, and kitchen-table laughter they shared.
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Crossfire
- By: Staceyann Chin
- Length: 3 hours 36 minutes
- Publisher: Dreamscape Media
- Publish date: March 18, 2021
- Language: English
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4.37(191 ratings)
4.37(191 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0017.99 USDCrossfire collects Staceyann Chin’s empowering, feminist-LGBTQ-Caribbean, activist-driven poetry for the first time in a single book. According to The New York Times, Chin is “sassy, rageful and sometimes softly self-mocking.” TheCrossfire collects Staceyann Chin’s empowering, feminist-LGBTQ-Caribbean, activist-driven poetry for the first time in a single book.
According to The New York Times, Chin is “sassy, rageful and sometimes softly self-mocking.” The Advocate says that her poems “combine hilarious one-liners with a refusal to conform” and note “Chin is out to confront more than just the straight world.”
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Felon
- By: Reginald Dwayne Betts
- Narrator: Reginald Dwayne Betts
- Length: 1 hours 22 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2019
- Language: English
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4.36(1978 ratings)
4.36(1978 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.009.99 USDA searing volume by a poet whose work conveys “the visceral effect that prison has on identity” (New York Times).Felon tells the story of one man in fierce, dazzling poems– canvassing his wide range of emotions and experiencesA searing volume by a poet whose work conveys “the visceral effect that prison has on identity” (New York Times).
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Felon tells the story of one man in fierce, dazzling poems– canvassing his wide range of emotions and experiences through homelessness, underemployment, love, drug abuse, domestic violence, fatherhood, and grace– and, in doing so, creates a travelogue for an imagined life. Reginald Dwayne Betts confronts the funk of post-incarceration existence and examines prison not as a static space, but as a force that enacts pressure throughout a person’s life. Challenging the complexities of language, Betts animates what it means to be a “felon.”
From “Night”
What she tells me: prison killed you
my love, killed you so dead that you’re not
here now, you’re never here, you’re always. -
We Are Each Other’s Harvest
- By: Natalie Baszile
- Narrator: Tina Lifford
- Length: 13 hours 41 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: April 06, 2021
- Language: English
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4.35(230 ratings)
4.35(230 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.006.99 USDFrom the author of Queen Sugar–now a critically acclaimed series on OWN directed by Ava Duvernay–comes a beautiful exploration and celebration of black farming in America. In this impressive anthology, Natalie Baszile brings togetherFrom the author of Queen Sugar–now a critically acclaimed series on OWN directed by Ava Duvernay–comes a beautiful exploration and celebration of black farming in America.
In this impressive anthology, Natalie Baszile brings together essays, poems, quotes, conversations, and first-person stories to examine black people’s connection to the American land from Emancipation to today. In the 1920s, there were over one million black farmers; today there are just 45,000. Baszile explores this crisis, through the farmers’ personal experiences. In their own words, middle aged and elderly black farmers explain why they continue to farm despite systemic discrimination and land loss. The “Returning Generation”–young farmers, who are building upon the legacy of their ancestors, talk about the challenges they face as they seek to redress issues of food justice, food sovereignty, and reparations.
These farmers are joined by other influential voices, including noted historians Analena Hope Hassberg and Pete Daniel, and award-winning author Clyde W. Ford, who considers the arrival of Africans to American shores; and James Beard Award-winning writers and Michael Twitty, reflects on black culinary tradition and its African roots. Poetry and inspirational quotes are woven into these diverse narratives, adding richness and texture.
As Baszile reveals, black farming informs crucial aspects of American culture–the family, the way our national identity is bound up with the land, the pull of memory, the healing power of food, and race relations. She reminds us that the land, well-earned and fiercely protected, transcends history and signifies a home that can be tended, tilled, and passed to succeeding generations with pride. We Are Each Other’s Harvest elevates the voices and stories of black farmers and people of color, celebrating their perseverance and resilience, while spotlighting the challenges they continue to face. Luminous and eye-opening, this eclectic collection helps people and communities of color today reimagine what it means to be dedicated to the soil.
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Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings
- By: Joy Harjo
- Narrator: Joy Harjo
- Length: 1 hours 53 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2020
- Language: English
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4.35(1908 ratings)
4.35(1908 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0014.95 USDA musical, magical, resilient volume from the first Native American Poet Laureate of the United States In these poems, the joys and struggles of the everyday are played against the grinding politics of being human. Beginning in a hotel room in theA musical, magical, resilient volume from the first Native American Poet Laureate of the United States
In these poems, the joys and struggles of the everyday are played against the grinding politics of being human. Beginning in a hotel room in the dark of a distant city, we travel through history and follow the memory of the Trail of Tears from the bend in the Tallapoosa River to a place near the Arkansas River. Stomp dance songs, blues, and jazz ballads echo throughout. Lost ancestors are recalled. Resilient songs are born, even as they grieve the loss of their country. Called a “magician and a master” (San Francisco Chronicle), Joy Harjo is at the top of her form in Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings.
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Black Oak
- By: Harold Green III
- Narrator: Harold Green III
- Length: 1 hours 20 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: May 31, 2022
- Language: English
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4.34(97 ratings)
4.34(97 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0014.99 USDAs he did for Black women in Black Roses, Harold Green III, poet and founder of the music collective Flowers for the Living, now honors the Black men he most admires–groundbreakers including Tyler Perry, Barry Jenkins, Billy Porter, Chance theAs he did for Black women in Black Roses, Harold Green III, poet and founder of the music collective Flowers for the Living, now honors the Black men he most admires–groundbreakers including Tyler Perry, Barry Jenkins, Billy Porter, Chance the Rapper, LeBron James, Colin Kaepernick, and John Legend–and celebrates their achievements which are transforming lives and making history.
Black men are changing society and the world through mastery, innovation, and inspiration at a pace never seen before. In awe of the myriad ways in which Black men are using their vision and power to remake culture and society, spoken word artist Harold Green began writing odes recognizing the extraordinary accomplishments of a series of Black men, which he shared on his Instagram account–tributes that went viral and became a social media sensation. Black Oak brings together many of these popular odes with original works written for this collection.
Divided into five sections–bravehearts, champions, dreamers, guardians, and humanitarians–Black Oak features iconic men who are spearheading movements, fighting for equality, challenging the status quo, embracing fatherhood, providing a transformative model of masculinity for our children, inspiring a new generation of creators, and more. Through these beautifully written verses, Harold does not simply place the Black men in this book on a pedestal, he transcends even the most positive stereotypes to view these men and their accomplishments in a new light, and creates meaningful connections between these beloved figures and the lives and experiences of readers of all backgrounds.
Black Oak includes odes to Barry Jenkins, Big K.R.I.T, Billy Porter, Black Thought, Chance the Rapper, Charles Booker, Colin Kaepernick, Dwyane Wade, Edmund Graham III, Eric Hale, Excell Hardy Jr., Harold Green III, Harold Green Jr., Harold Green Sr., Hebru Brantley, Henry Louis Gates Jr., Jamaal Bowman, Jason Reynolds, Jericho Brown, John Legend, Kehinde Wiley, Kerry James Marshall, Kevin Fredricks, Killer Mike, Kyler Broadus, LeBron James, Mahershala Ali, Marc Lamont Hill, Matthew Cherry, Orlando Cooper, Pharrell, Rev. Dr. Otis Moss III, Rev. Dr. William Barber II, Ryan Coogler, Swizz Beatz, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Theaster Gates, Tobe Nwigwe, Tristan Walker, and Tyler Perry.
The audiobook edition of Black Oak also includes an exclusive interview between Green, his father, and grandfather about the making of the collection.
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Black Roses
- By: Harold Green III
- Narrator: Harold Green III
- Length: 1 hours 26 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: March 15, 2022
- Language: English
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4.33(116 ratings)
4.33(116 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0014.99 USDThe poet and founder of the music collective Flowers for the Living pays tribute to all Black women by focusing on visionaries and leaders who are making history right now, including Ava DuVernay, Janelle Monae, Kamala Harris, Misty Copeland, NikoleThe poet and founder of the music collective Flowers for the Living pays tribute to all Black women by focusing on visionaries and leaders who are making history right now, including Ava DuVernay, Janelle Monae, Kamala Harris, Misty Copeland, Nikole Hannah-Jones, Robin Roberts, Roxane Gay, and Simone Biles–with this compilation of celebratory odes.
Black women are exceptional. To honor how Black women use their minds, talent, passion, and power to transform society, Harold Green began writing love letters in verse which he shared on his Instagram account. Balm for our troubled times, his tributes to visionaries and leaders quickly went viral and became a social media sensation. Now, in this remarkable collection, Green brings together many of these popular odes with never-before-seen works.
A timely celebration of contemporary Black figures who are making history and shaping our culture today, Black Roses is divided into five sections–advocates, curators, innovators, luminaries, trailblazers–reflecting the diversity of Black women’s achievements and the depth of their reach. These inspiring changemakers are leaving their mark on the world by creating new beauty in their respective art forms, heading movements, fighting for equality and to change the status quo, and championing new definitions of what’s possible in every meaningful way. Green lifts them up to create meaningful connections between these figures and our own lives and experiences.
Black Roses spotlights and urges readers to learn more about Allyson Felix, Angelica Ross, Ava DuVernay, Bisa Butler, Bozoma Saint John, Charisma Sweat-Green, Dr. Eve Ewing, Dr. Janice Jackson, Dr. Johnnetta Cole, Eunique Jones-Gibson, Issa Rae, Janelle Monae, Jennifer Hudson, Jessica Matthews, Kamala Harris, Keisha Bottoms, Kimberly Bryant, Kimberly Drew, Lisa Green, Lizzo, Mandilyn Graham, Mellody Hobson, Michelle Alexander, Misty Copeland, Naomi Beckwith, Nikole Hannah-Jones, Phylicia Rashad, Rapsody, Raquel Willis, Robin Roberts, Roxane Gay, Shellye Archambeau, Simone Biles, Stacey Abrams, Tabitha Brown, Tamika Mallory, Tarana Burke, Tasha Bell, Tomi Adeyemi, and Tracee Ellis Ross.
The audiobook edition of Black Roses also includes an exclusive interview between Green and his mother about the making of the collection.
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I’m Telling the Truth, but I’m Lying
- By: Bassey Ikpi
- Narrator: Bassey Ikpi
- Length: 7 hours 12 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: August 20, 2019
- Language: English
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4.32(2701 ratings)
4.32(2701 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0021.99 USD2020 Audie Finalist – Short Stories/Collections In I’m Telling the Truth, but I’m Lying Bassey Ikpi explores her life–as a Nigerian-American immigrant, a black woman, a slam poet, a mother, a daughter, an artist–through2020 Audie Finalist – Short Stories/Collections
In I’m Telling the Truth, but I’m Lying Bassey Ikpi explores her life–as a Nigerian-American immigrant, a black woman, a slam poet, a mother, a daughter, an artist–through the lens of her mental health and diagnosis of bipolar II and anxiety. Her remarkable memoir in essays implodes our preconceptions of the mind and normalcy as Bassey bares her own truths and lies for us all to behold with radical honesty and brutal intimacy.
A Bitch Magazine Most Anticipated Book of 2019 * A Bustle 21 New Memoirs That Will Inspire, Motivate, and Captivate You * A Publishers Weekly Spring Preview Selection * An Electric Lit 48 Books by Women and Nonbinary Authors of Color to Read in 2019 * A Bookish Best Nonfiction of Summer Selection
“We will not think or talk about mental health or normalcy the same after reading this momentous art object moonlighting as a colossal collection of essays.” –Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy
From her early childhood in Nigeria through her adolescence in Oklahoma, Bassey Ikpi lived with a tumult of emotions, cycling between extreme euphoria and deep depression–sometimes within the course of a single day. By the time she was in her early twenties, Bassey was a spoken word artist and traveling with HBO’s Def Poetry Jam, channeling her life into art. But beneath the facade of the confident performer, Bassey’s mental health was in a precipitous decline, culminating in a breakdown that resulted in hospitalization and a diagnosis of Bipolar II.
In I’m Telling the Truth, But I’m Lying, Bassey Ikpi breaks open our understanding of mental health by giving us intimate access to her own. Exploring shame, confusion, medication, and family in the process, Bassey looks at how mental health impacts every aspect of our lives–how we appear to others, and more importantly to ourselves–and challenges our preconception about what it means to be “normal.” Viscerally raw and honest, the result is an exploration of the stories we tell ourselves to make sense of who we are–and the ways, as honest as we try to be, each of these stories can also be a lie.
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We Speak Your Names
- By: Pearl Cleage
- Narrator: Pearl Cleage
- Length: 45 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2006
- Language: English
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4.31(255 ratings)
4.31(255 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.006.95 USD“Sisterhood in the service of truth is an undeniable force in these remarkable times. My Sisters, here, there, and everywhere, this poem is for you.” In the tradition of Maya Angelou’s Phenomenal Woman, bestselling author Pearl“Sisterhood in the service of truth is an undeniable force in these remarkable times. My Sisters, here, there, and everywhere, this poem is for you.”
In the tradition of Maya Angelou’s Phenomenal Woman, bestselling author Pearl Cleage brings us an inspiring poem for all women, destined to become a classic.
Cleage refers to We Speak Your Names as a “celebration” which is part of an oral tradition that encompasses the entire history of the African American experience. This tradition, she says, grew out of an understanding that “some things must be spoken out loud to get where the magic is.” What results is a praise poem which acknowledges the legacy of those who have gone before, and a realization, “with a knowing deeper than the flow of human blood in human veins, that we are part of something better, truer, deeper.”
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We Want Our Bodies Back
- By: jessica Care moore
- Narrator: jessica Care moore
- Length: 2 hours 1 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: March 31, 2020
- Language: English
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4.3(440 ratings)
4.3(440 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0013.99 USDA dazzling full-length collection of verse from one of the leading poets of our time. Over the past two decades, jessica Care moore has become a cultural force as a poet, performer, publisher, activist, and critic. Reflecting her transcendentA dazzling full-length collection of verse from one of the leading poets of our time.
Over the past two decades, jessica Care moore has become a cultural force as a poet, performer, publisher, activist, and critic. Reflecting her transcendent electric voice, this searing poetry collection is filled with moving, original stanzas that speak to both Black women’s creative and intellectual power, and express the pain, sadness, and anger of those who suffer constant scrutiny because of their gender and race. Fierce and passionate, Jessica Care moore argues that Black women spend their lives building a physical and emotional shelter to protect themselves from misogyny, criminalization, hatred, stereotypes, sexual assault, objectification, patriarchy, and death threats.
We Want Our Bodies Back is an exploration–and defiant stance against–these many attacks.
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Building Bridges
- By: Stephen King
- Narrator: Stephen King
- Length: 29 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2004
- Language: English
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4.3(130 ratings)
4.3(130 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.007.95 USDBUILDING BRIDGES Stephen King Live at the National Book Awards Each Autumn, in conjunction with the conferring of The National Book Awards in Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, and Young People’s Literature, the Board of Directors of the FoundationBUILDING BRIDGES
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Stephen King Live at the National Book Awards
Each Autumn, in conjunction with the conferring of The National Book Awards in Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, and Young People’s Literature, the Board of Directors of the Foundation presents a Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. The recipient is a person who has enriched our literary heritage over a life of service, or a corpus of work. The 2003 recipient of this distinguished award was presented to one of the great voices of American literature — Stephen King.
King accepts the award with grace and wit. His acceptance speech is filled with loving thanks to his wife Tabitha and with a passionate appreciation of his craft. King reflects on bridging the gap between literary and popular writers as well as staying true to his work and to himself over the many years. He concludes his speech by saluting all the nominees and with his sincerest hope that “you’ll find something to read that will fill you up as this evening has filled me up.”
100% of publisher and author profits from Building Bridges will be donated to the National Book Foundation. -
To Shape a New World
- By: Tommie Shelby
- Narrator: Kevin Kenerly
- Length: 16 hours 25 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2018
- Language: English
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4.29(37 ratings)
4.29(37 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0022.95 USDMartin Luther King Jr. may be America’s most revered political figure, commemorated in statues, celebrations, and street names around the world. On the fiftieth anniversary of King’s assassination, the man and his activism are as closeMartin Luther King Jr. may be America’s most revered political figure, commemorated in statues, celebrations, and street names around the world. On the fiftieth anniversary of King’s assassination, the man and his activism are as close to public consciousness as ever. But despite his stature, the significance of King’s writings and political thought remains underappreciated.
In To Shape a New World, Tommie Shelby and Brandon Terry write that the marginalization of King’s ideas reflects a romantic, consensus history that renders the civil rights movement inherently conservative–an effort not at radical reform but at “living up to” enduring ideals laid down by the nation’s founders. On this view, King marshaled lofty rhetoric to help redeem the ideas of universal (white) heroes, but produced little original thought. This failure to engage deeply and honestly with King’s writings allows him to be conscripted into political projects he would not endorse, including the pernicious form of “color blindness” that insists, amid glaring race-based injustice, that racism has been overcome.
Cornel West, Danielle Allen, Martha Nussbaum, Robert Gooding-Williams, and other authors join Shelby and Terry in careful, critical engagement with King’s understudied writings on labor and welfare rights, voting rights, racism, civil disobedience, nonviolence, economic inequality, poverty, love, just-war theory, virtue ethics, political theology, imperialism, nationalism, reparations, and social justice. In King’s exciting and learned work, the authors find an array of compelling challenges to some of the most pressing political dilemmas of our present, and rethink the legacy of this towering figure.
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Darkwater
- By: W. E. B. Du Bois
- Narrator: Bernard K. Addison
- Length: 9 hours 0 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2014
- Language: English
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4.29(552 ratings)
4.29(552 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.95 USDThe distinguished American civil rights leader, W. E. B. Du Bois first published these fiery essays, sketches, and poems individually in 1920 in the Atlantic, the Journal of Race Development, and other periodicals. Reflecting the author’sThe distinguished American civil rights leader, W. E. B. Du Bois first published these fiery essays, sketches, and poems individually in 1920 in the Atlantic, the Journal of Race Development, and other periodicals. Reflecting the author’s ideas as a politician, historian, and artist, this volume has long moved and inspired readers with its militant cry for social, political, and economic reform. It is essential reading for all students of African American history.
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An American Sunrise
- By: Joy Harjo
- Narrator: Joy Harjo
- Length: 1 hours 41 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2019
- Language: English
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4.29(4937 ratings)
4.29(4937 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0014.95 USDA stunning new volume from the first Native American Poet Laureate of the United States, informed by her tribal history and connection to the land. In the early 1800s, the Mvskoke people were forcibly removed from their original lands east of theA stunning new volume from the first Native American Poet Laureate of the United States, informed by her tribal history and connection to the land.
In the early 1800s, the Mvskoke people were forcibly removed from their original lands east of the Mississippi to Indian Territory, which is now part of Oklahoma. Two hundred years later, Joy Harjo returns to her family’s lands and opens a dialogue with history. In An American Sunrise, Harjo finds blessings in the abundance of her homeland and confronts the site where her people, and other indigenous families, essentially disappeared. From her memory of her mother’s death, to her beginnings in the native rights movement, to the fresh road with her beloved, Harjo’s personal life intertwines with tribal histories to create a space for renewed beginnings. Her poems sing of beauty and survival, illuminating a spirituality that connects her to her ancestors and thrums with the quiet anger of living in the ruins of injustice. A descendent of storytellers and “one of our finest–and most complicated–poets” (Los Angeles Review of Books), Joy Harjo continues her legacy with this latest powerful collection.
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Cliff Weitzman
Cliff Weitzman is a dyslexia advocate and the CEO and founder of Speechify, the #1 text-to-speech app in the world, totaling over 100,000 5-star reviews and ranking first place in the App Store for the News & Magazines category. In 2017, Weitzman was named to the Forbes 30 under 30 list for his work making the internet more accessible to people with learning disabilities. Cliff Weitzman has been featured in EdSurge, Inc., PC Mag, Entrepreneur, Mashable, among other leading outlets.
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