You might remember, a few weeks ago, we ran a giveaway called “Black Stories Matter,” a way of supporting the Black Lives Matter movement and raising interest and awareness in some truly incredible Black speculative authors – John Steptoe, Karen Lord, Bethany C. Morrow, Nilah Magruder, Aiysha Sinclair (who our dear friend Grace recently did an awesome interview with here!) and Roseanne A. Brown.

At the designated time, we chose a winner… however, our winner, Naomi von Monsta (an amazing artist of phenomenally beautiful/creepy fae creatures you absolutely MUST check out), asked us to DONATE the books because she wanted to buy them herself and doubly support the Black artists who made them. This lovely act of generosity demanded we find a fantastic place to donate these books, and we settled on the organization Books for Africa.

Books for Africa is “a 501 nonprofit organization dedicated to collecting, sorting, shipping, and distributing books to children and adults in Africa.” Their goal is “to end the book famine” there, and they believe that “education is the great equalizer in the world” and that “books are the foundation of a strong educational system.” They “suppl[y] sea containers of books to rural school libraries, orphanages, adult literacy programs, and community resource centers.” In 2020, they donated their 50 millionth book.

We think it’s pretty clear that we love books beyond reason, and having the chance to help give access to them is 100% in line with what Carterhaugh is all about. Books, as Books for Africa states on their website, truly are “gift[s] of hope.” In addition to shipping the giveaway books to the organization’s warehouse in Atlanta, we have also made a monetary donation to help.

We sent our box to the organization as a whole so that they may distribute the books as they best see fit, but they also run several “Special Initiatives” that might be of particular interest. We especially love the “Girls Empowerment Collections” – books that provide information and encouragement to African girls, who are frequently denied education.

You can donate funds to Books for Africa by clicking here, books by following the instructions here, or you can also peruse and send books from their Amazon wishlist.

Special thanks again to Shveta Thakrar, Grace Nuth, Erin Kathleen Bahl, Lindsey Márton O’Brien, and Meenoo Mishra for their their support of this giveaway!