We highly recommend reading her New York Times op-ed that concludes: 

This mission is what's been passed down to me - to write stories that have been historically absent in this country's body of literature, to create mirrors for the people who so rarely see themselves inside contemporary fiction, and windows for those who think we are no more than the stereotypes they're so afraid of. To give young people--and all people--a sense of this country's brilliant and brutal history.

Woodson's Brown Girl Dreaming is one of our Teaching for Change staff picks for best books of 2014.

Right now, we need writers who know the difference between production of a market commodity and the practice of an art. 

Books aren't just commodities; the profit motive is often in conflict with the aims of art. We live in capitalism, its power seems inescapable--but then, so did the divine right of kings. 

Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art. Very often in our art, the art of words.

Read and hear full speech.