Joan Didion, who passed away on December 23, 2021, was one of the country’s most trenchant writers and astute observers. Her works of fiction, commentary, and memoir have received numerous honors and are considered modern classics. Parul Sehgal described the prolific writer as “preoccupied with, and troubled by, mythos—of youth, of America’s founding, of social

Because what you read matters.   Subscribe to the Penguin Classics Newsletter here.   New year, new Classics! We truly can’t wait to share all the exciting titles we have coming this year, from new Penguin Vitaes to the Penguin Classics Marvel Collection to (of course) dozens of the black spines you know and love. Read on to discover the

What do you think makes this book stand out?  I think what really makes this book stand out is that it is an excellent, highly accessible introduction to Black history. It’s a comprehensive resource for those interested in learning about a wide array of topics in Black history from prehistoric times into the present.  

Julie Otsuka’s When the Emperor Was Divine has been honored with the 2022 Phoenix Award, which encourages high standards of criticism, scholarship, research, and teaching in children’s literature. The only prize of its kind, the award recognizes a book of exceptional literary merit published twenty years prior that did not win a major award at the time