The Diverse Baseline (2025 Version)GOAL:Read 1 book by a racialized author every month, for the entirety of 2025, for a total of 12 books. This challenge is meant to encourage readers to try genres they historically don’t reach for, find new-to-them racialized authors, and to encourage reflection on our reading habits. We want to read inclusively across genres and identities.WHAT DOES "RACIALIZED" MEAN?“The term ‘racialized’ is a sociological concept closely related to racism. People seen as belonging to racialized minorities are people who could be perceived as being socially different from, for example, the racial or ethnic majority. […] The word ‘racialized’ stresses the fact that race is neither biological nor objective but is a concept which is societal in origin. Categorizations other than ‘racialized’ include ‘people of colour’ or BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Colour).”With racialized we mean folks who are racialized under a U.S. lens, as we are creating this challenge from a U.S. lens, with alarmingly white lists like Goodreads and NYT in mind. We are focusing on authors who descend from the global majority: Black, Indigenous, Brown, Latinx, Pacific Islander, Arab, West Asian, North African, Southeast Asian, South Asian, East Asian, African, biracial, and multiracial people who are mixed with one or more of the above, and other people and groups who cannot access white privilege in the U.S.The term "global majority" refers to the ethnic groups that make up the majority of the world's population, which is approximately 80%. The term "global majority" was coined by educator and activist Rosemary Campbell-Stephens. It's intended to disrupt white supremacy culture and ideology.You can read more here.
GUIDELINES:Each month, there will be one prompt.Each book you choose needs to fit one of the prompts from our list.You’re welcome to read more books fitting additional prompts if you can and want to.All books need to be written by racialized authors. Books with racialized main characters written by white authors do NOT fit the brief. Make sure you double check with at least a web search to make sure that the authors and books you’ve chosen fit the challenge. DO NOT ADD WHITE AUTHORS TO THE STORYGRAPH PROMPTS!Readers are welcome and encouraged, to share recommendations, and to add those books to the Storygraph Challenge.Note: research your authors/books before adding them to the prompts, as we can only “hide” books that don’t fit and don’t actually have the ability to take them off the lists for everyone. We will not be providing a comprehensive list of authors, as there are thousands of authors out there, and we do not consider ourselves “experts” on anything. We encourage you to do your research to ensure your books fit the brief, and when mistakes are made, that’s totally fine. No challenge or person will ever be perfect, and we should let go of that expectation. We believe in you.
COMMUNITY:Co-creators will be sharing their own picks for each month. Margherita hosts a monthly Fable book club where xe focuses on romance and chooses books that fit the prompts, and Brittany will be hosting a StoryGraph read-along each month with her choice. Margherita also often posts round ups around different tropes, identities, and more. Brittany posts book reviews on Instagram and StoryGraph all year long.Join our Discord to share book recommendations and updates with other participants and the challenge co-creators!Subscribe to the newsletter to make sure you don’t miss important updates throughout the year.We loved being tagged in your monthly wrap ups and reflections, and hope to see this momentum continue into 2025. We can’t wait to read your reviews once you’ve completed the prompt for each month, whether it’s on Goodreads, StoryGraph, Instagram, TikTok, or any other avenue you post reviews!
CALL-INSWhile we are hosting this challenge with passion and thoughtfulness, we recognize that we are ultimately two fallible humans who can and will miss the mark. With that being said, we both are open to being called in and having 1:1 dialogues with yall. We care deeply about this challenge and want to do it with immense love and care.If you have any comments, concerns, or feedback regarding the challenge, we encourage you to reach out to us.Ways to reach out to us:• Email us at [email protected]• DM Brittany, Margherita, or our lovely moderator Mylynn @hyperfixatedreader in the Discord server• DM us on InstagramWe are asking the following as a shared community agreement: though this challenge will be shared across StoryGraph, Discord, Instagram, TikTok, and GoodReads, and is not just one centralized “community.”If you are in the Discord server, we ask that you don’t share or screenshot the Discord conversations, to respect those in the server. You can absolutely share general lessons or reflections, but we ask that you not repeat what others disclose (sometimes very vulnerably) in the Discord. We obviously cannot and will not police this, but are hoping you honor this.
REMINDERS & REFLECTIONS:Remember: this is an optional challenge. If it does not feel motivating and is instead causing more harm to you than helping, you are not required to participate, you are not looked down upon for not participating, and/or you are not being judged for tapping out of this challenge. The co-creators feel similarly about running this challenge; we want to keep it fun and of course, as a tool for growth for those open to it.This challenge is meant to encourage readers to reflect upon their reading habits, and to move forward intentionally to be mindful about the “baseline” of what we should be reading if we are going to call ourselves “well read”. It is not meant to be a comprehensive checklist; it’s a starting point for inward reflection that informs future reading & purchasing.We are simply asking, “Whose voices am I leaving out? Have I made a concerted effort to diversify across genres, identities, and more?” This challenge will look and feel different for everyone, and that is a beautiful display of diversity of thought and lived experience :)To be abundantly clear, there is no prize for completing the challenge 100% and there is no punishment for not. This is OPTIONAL and should be FUN! If not, we encourage you to seek other challenges (there are plenty from such amazing creators) that do fit what you are seeking for your 2025 goals.There are no value judgments placed upon folks who join or do not join a challenge. If the challenge is not fun, exciting, or motivating to you, that’s okay. No one is pressuring you or forcing you to do anything you do not want to do—if you feel pressured, we invite you to interrogate that, but the co-creators of TDB are not policing anyone on how they go about a challenge. Our only guideline is that you choose racialized authors for our challenge.Our challenge is meant to encourage you and to inspire reflection. Some folks don’t need a challenge to do that, while others may be newer in their reading journeys, and do! Both are valid. No matter what, we are rooting for you in your reading journey ahead!A note from Brittany on reflection: I don’t think of reflecting on reading habits as something inherently negative, as if it is a “chore”; I believe reflection is simply part of the human experience. I do it in almost every aspect of my life, from monthly reading wrap ups, to book reviews (I am ultimately sharing reflections in these book reviews), when I talk about the music I love to friends, when I fill out my annual performance evaluations and think about what I want my career to look like, when I think about the relationships in my life, checking in on how my body feels, talking about how my day went or what’s ahead of me, and more!Every part of our lives will be reflected upon, so why not our reading habits? It also doesn’t mean my life is not fun, or the actions I’m participating in are not fun. I just had a jam-packed week full of cup-filling moments, and the act of reflection actually caused me to dig deeper for gratitude and I felt even more loved.Art can absolutely be utilized as dissociation or escapism, but let’s be clear: it’s never JUST that. Art helps us to make sense of and live in this world. Let’s not reduce it to solely being for entertainment that never warrants reflection. Even telling your friend, “Wow, that was just what I needed. I laughed so hard throughout that entire film,” after watching an unserious goofy movie that truly entertained you is an act of reflection.Reflection is a gift, and I’d almost call it a privilege. It’s what makes us human, and I actually have a lot of fun reflecting on my reading habits, and thinking about which genres or identities I was pulled towards in a certain month or time in my life. It’s a great exercise in re-getting to know myself and my taste, so I hope you can view reflection and challenges in a much more exciting, hopeful, encouraging, and fun light, because it really can be. I’m gonna leave you with my former people pleaser canned response to keep it light: If not, no worries!
WHERE THE CHALLENGE WILL BE:Like in 2024, there is a StoryGraph challenge. It’s already active and accessible to everyone. In 2025, let’s all ensure we are adding authors and books that fit the prompts, as this is incredibly helpful for people to find books for each prompt.There is now also a discord server, where you can connect with others who are participating in the challenge. Please be mindful that it is just us two and another moderator overseeing the virtual space, so we appreciate your patience and understanding. Some channels are on slow mode to ensure we are thoughtfully engaging in discussions online.