February is Black History Month in North America, so I want to take this time to read and share books by Black authors, spreading their stories and showcasing the brilliance of Black writers. All perspectives and voices are important, and Black voices deserve to be heard. Make Your Way Home came across my radar a few months ago, and I am so happy I happened upon it, because this short story collection is so beautifully tragic and heartfelt.

How can you love where you come from, even when home doesn’t love you back? In eleven stories that span Florida marshes, North Carolina mountains, and Southern metropolitan cities, Make Your Way Home follows Black men and women who grapple with the homes that have eluded them. A preteen pregnant alongside her mother refuses to let convention dictate who she names as the father of her child. Centuries after slavery separated his ancestors, a native Texan tries to win over the love of his life, despite the grip of a family curse. A young deaconess, who falls for a new church member, wonders what it means when God stops speaking to her. And at the very end of the South as we know it, two sisters seek to escape North to freedom, to promises of a more stable climate. Artfully and precisely drawn, and steeped in place and history as it explores themes of belonging, inheritance, and deep intimacy, Carrie R. Moore’s debut collection announces an extraordinary new talent in American fiction, inviting us all to examine how the past shapes our present—and how our present choices will echo for years to come.

From When We Go, We Go Downstream to Till It and Keep It, Carrie R. Moore has established eleven Black stories with such clarity and sharp emotion, allowing the characters to be complex, deeply moving, relatable, and profound. These stories aren’t just fiction; they are the lives of so many, in every gritty, lyrical, and uncomfortable word. The narrative style is musical, allowing the stories to rise and fall with different notes and tunes, but the same underlying depth of emotion. There is so much heart and soul put into these short stories, and Carrie R. Moore will be an author the world needs to keep an eye on. Her words have such power and strength, grasping you in their hold as the story moves through each movement. By the end of it, tears will be forming in your eyes.

Make Your Way Home deserves so much praise and so many readers, so I implore you to pick this up this month, or any month you come across this post. It is a feat of brilliance, and I know so many people will enjoy the depth and breadth of emotions this collection will pull out of you.