Rating: 3.5 stars

I received a digital copy of this book on NetGalley for an honest review.

The collection of short stories in the Kweli Journal’s Sing the Truth was an enjoyable read for me. What I liked about these stories is how I felt like I was the person narrating their stories, like I was living their everyday experience. Even though I know I can’t relate to these characters and all their struggles, I didn’t feel that way when reading their stories. I believe a lot of that is due to how real these characters’ struggles felt to me, which is what I was hoping for when I read this collection.

What I also enjoyed reading Sing the Truth was getting to read stories from BIPOC writers. I’m going to be honest, I’m not always the best at reading a diverse set of books. I have a particular set of genres that I really enjoy reading, and I typically stick to reading books within those genres. However, from time to time, I find myself wanting to give other genres in literature a try. That is when I find myself reading stories I typically wouldn’t, and end up discovering books I enjoy more than I was expecting to.

For me, whenever I read, I usually read books that allow me to escape reality. But I have come to realize, too, that I need to branch out when I read. And for me, that involves reading books outside of the genres I typically enjoy and reading stories that take me out of my comfort zone. As a white woman, I feel like it’s really important that I read stories from BIPOC authors and that I read stories about characters whose voices need to be heard. Stories that are not geared towards someone like me as their intended audience, but that someone like me needs to read all the same, because of the importance of reading about others’ struggles, even if you can’t necessarily relate to them. I also feel like it’s important to read works written by BIPOC authors because I see it as a learning opportunity about other cultures and to acknowledge the struggles people go through just because of the color of their skin. So, for me, I also enjoyed reading this book because of the stories being written by BIPOC writers and having the chance to read about struggles from a perspective I know I’ll never have to face.

What I also found enjoyable about the stories in Sing the Truth was the different themes. A lot of the characters in this collection struggled with loss, feeling out of place, and finances. I enjoyed these stories because they talk about these struggles and how the characters here get through the challenges they are dealing with. I especially enjoyed reading the stories in the collection that focused on loss because of my own experiences with loss that I’ve dealt with. I felt like I could relate to those characters and the choices they made to deal with the loss they were experiencing, even though their loss is different from mine.

There are only two things with this collection of short stories that I didn’t particularly enjoy: the characters and endings. Some of the characters in the short stories I didn’t particularly like. I don’t know for sure if the authors who wrote them made that intentional, but I found some of the characters unlikable. I felt sympathetic for them because of what they were going through, but didn’t like them because of some of the choices they made or how they treated members of their family in the story. The characters, in particular, that come to mind for me are the mothers in most of these stories because of how they used their daughters to get the money they needed. While I understood that they were going through a tough time and needed the money, I wasn’t okay with this aspect in those stories because I felt like the daughters weren’t given a choice in the matter, and the mothers didn’t act like they cared. I also didn’t like the endings for a majority of the stories in this collection. Mostly because I felt like some of the stories ended with no real resolution, or in the middle of the story I was reading, being told. They didn’t make sense to me because they left me feeling like there was more of the characters’ story the author had to tell.

But overall, I enjoyed reading this collection of short stories from the Kweli Journal’s Sing the Truth (link here for anyone interested in checking out their website to learn more about them: https://www.kwelijournal.org/ ). While there aren’t certain stories within the collection that stand out to me to name as my favorite, I enjoyed reading a variety of stories and reading about struggles told by BIPOC authors. Sing the Truth was published on May 13, 2025, for those interested in reading this collection from the Kweli Journal.

A decent collection but none particularly stood out to me. I didn't dislike any of them but I also don't remember any of them.

I received an audiobook ARC through NetGalley for an honest review.

This was a beautiful, breathtaking, and heartbreaking short story collection of BIPOC voices from around the world.

This collection of short stories from the wonderful The Kweli Journal both gives an insight into the experiences and imagination of people from all around the world that we might not otherwise hear from, and truly unites us all in the human emotion and passion for storytelling.

A phenomenal project and an exquisite and eclectic collection of stories.

Marvelous!

I am automatically going to read anything that Eswidge Dandicat has written or is involved with! I preferred some stories over others but overall I think that this is an important collection of short stories. Some sad, odd, and all thought-provoking. I both read and listened. The audiobook authors were well chosen and their voices kept me engaged!

A really intriguing premise and an innovative idea! The writing was also excellent. Some of the stories were definitely stronger than others. I did not finish in time but I thoroughly enjoyed what I did read!

3.5/5 - Great writing by all of these authors and I really appreciated that the stories were all described in the prologue by the editor. I think any negative feedback that I have around this book might come from the fact that I’m not the biggest fan of non-essay style short stories, but overall, this was a good read.

This is collection of short stories by BIPOC authors highlights a multitude of perspectives and voices. A mother tries to keep her three daughters warm with her husband in jail. A boy finds out that his step-father might not have gone to college. A college student reconnects with her grandparents and her body. A lot of these were really fantastic stories from bright voices.

A very pleasant collection that clearly shows the quality of the Kweli Journal publishing.

It's undeniable from the very beginning and until the very end, these authors selected are great ones. The short stories displayed here are evident testimonies of that. The writing is strong, and often daring as well. I've rarely read so many pieces playing with pronouns and address to the reader the way many of them did in Sing the Truth. I always appreciate a story that chooses "You" as the main narrative, I found it systematically both deeper and more playful. Even when slightly clumsy, it proves a thoughtful and clever understanding of writing as a media and a desire to engage differently with the reader which I admire. Here, despite some stories being maybe less striking or memorable than other, I find it always obvious that the writer was nonetheless understanding what makes good writing and layered characters and would soon be an accomplished author if they weren't already, just lacking a little bit more experience at the time to fully discover and embrace the uniqueness of their voice.
I'm not used to reading anthologies by different authors, so it could be just that, but I found it difficult to enjoy this as a whole. Usually in short story collections, some are obviously less interesting than others and these lows are needed to better highlight the highs. But here, as all of them had evident qualities and balance, it seems harder to remember my favourite ones and somehow set an even unfairly higher standard! Anyway, this was great, I'll definitely read more from many of these authors!

I really enjoyed this collection of short stories by diverse BIPOC. The collection contained books from BIPOC from various countries and cultures. The stories were well told and detailed. They gave a glimpse of lives and situations that often aren't told but should be. Some of the stories left me wanting more. I wanted to find out what happened next to the characters. I was introduced to new writers who I will definitely seek out their past and future work.

This was a strong short story collection, it had that element that I was looking for and enjoyed from this type of book. The stories worked with the concept of this collection and was glad I got to read this. It was everything that I was looking for and glad I read this.