Books by Tiya Miles

“In this country, Harriet Tubman is practically a pop culture icon at this point. She was an escaped slave who very bravely turned around and became a key part of the Underground Railroad, rescuing as many as 80 slaves and getting them to the North or to Canada. Many books have been written about her, from books for children to full-fledged biographies. Miles was interested in something different; she’s interested in Tubman’s spirituality. It’s not a fully-fledged biography; to me it reads more like an extended essay on the faith that these women had, how it sustained them. Miles’s deep reservoir of knowledge really carries it along.” Read more...

The Best Biographies: The 2025 NBCC Shortlist

Mary Ann Gwinn, Journalist

“This is a work of historical excavation. It concerns a sack that belonged to a girl called Ashley, who, when she was nine years old, was sold away from her mother Rose. Both were enslaved. This was the 1850s, and the sack was later embroidered by Ashley’s granddaughter, Ruth, who worked this incredible inscription that tells us almost everything we know about the story. This book is what we can know about these women, the discoveries made about their identity, and the thousands of others whose stories cannot be told who experienced unimaginable horror. A people’s trauma.” Read more...

Recent Nonfiction Highlights: The 2024 Women’s Prize Shortlist

Suzannah Lipscomb, Historian