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In 1968 Nikki Giovanni, a 25-year-old Fisk graduate, paid to print her first book of poems herself. Her second, Black Judgement, sold 6,000 copies in its first three months, and it held “Nikki-Rosa”, the poem about a Black childhood that is still her best known. Three years later she was reading her poems over gospel music on a record, and in 1971 she sat down with James Baldwin for a television conversation that became a book. She went on to write for children, to teach at Virginia Tech for 35 years, and, on 17 April 2007, to close the memorial for the 32 people killed there with the line “We are Virginia Tech.” She died in December 2024. This guide covers her 13 key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 13 key books · 1968–2025 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Nikki Giovanni published more than 25 books between 1968 and her death in 2024, with one more appearing in 2025. Her best-known are the early collections Black Judgement (1968) and My House (1972), the essays Gemini (1971), a National Book Award finalist, and the picture book Rosa (2005). Start with Black Judgement, the book that contains “Nikki-Rosa”, and read on for how her voice changed over five decades.
Where to Start with Nikki Giovanni
If you want the poems that made her name
→ Black Judgement (1968) — including “Nikki-Rosa”.
If you want her life in prose
→ Gemini (1971) — the essays that were a National Book Award finalist.
If you want a conversation, not a poem
→ A Dialogue (1973) — her 1971 exchange with James Baldwin.
If you want to read with a child
→ Rosa (2005) — the Rosa Parks picture book.
13 Nikki Giovanni Books, in Order
Black Feeling, Black Talk
Her first collection, which she paid to have printed herself in 1968, a year after graduating from Fisk University. The poems come out of the Black Arts and Black Power movements of the late 1960s and sold thousands of copies. In 1970 it was reissued together with Black Judgement in one volume.
Black Judgement
Her second collection, published in the same year as the first, sold 6,000 copies in its first three months. It contains “Nikki-Rosa”, a poem about growing up Black and poor but loved, which ends on the fear that a white biographer will only see hardship. It is the poem most often named as her most famous.
Re: Creation
Published by Broadside Press in Detroit, the small press behind much of the Black Arts Movement. It includes “Ego-Tripping”, one of her most taught poems, which later gave its title to her 1973 book of poems for young readers.
Gemini
A book of autobiographical essays covering her childhood in Knoxville and Ohio, her family and her first years as a poet, alongside her views on politics and Black culture. It was a finalist for the National Book Award in 1973.
My House
Published three years after the birth of her son, Thomas, in 1969, this collection turns from the public, political voice of her first books toward home, family and love, the subjects that would run through the rest of her work.
A Dialogue
The transcript of a conversation she recorded with James Baldwin in 1971 for the public television series Soul!, published by Lippincott in 1973. The two writers, a generation apart, talk at length about race relations in America, with a preface by the journalist Ida Lewis.
Cotton Candy on a Rainy Day
A collection from the late 1970s, published in the same year as a spoken-word recording of the same name. It belongs to the more personal phase of her work that began with My House.
Those Who Ride the Night Winds
Her first new collection of the 1980s, often listed with Black Judgement as one of her most important books of poems. It was published four years before she joined Virginia Tech, where she would teach until 2022.
Love Poems
A collection of new and earlier poems about love in its many forms. It won an NAACP Image Award, the first of seven she received for her books.
Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea
Poems and short prose pieces mixed together, as the subtitle says. It won an NAACP Image Award in 2003.
Rosa
A picture-book biography of Rosa Parks, illustrated by Bryan Collier and published in 2005 for the 50th anniversary of her arrest and the Montgomery bus boycott. It was a Caldecott Honor Book in 2006, and Collier won the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award for it. Giovanni narrated the 2007 film version.
Bicycles
Love poems published two years after the Virginia Tech shooting, where she taught. It became a New York Times bestseller and won an NAACP Image Award in 2010.
The New Book
Published by William Morrow in September 2025, nine months after her death. It mixes recent poems with letters, lists, interview excerpts, short essays and diary-like pieces, including a remembrance of Toni Morrison. Before publication it had been announced as The Last Book.
In What Order to Read Nikki Giovanni
Her books do not depend on each other, so you can start anywhere. Read in order, though, and you can follow the voice change: the urgent, political poems of 1968–1970, the turn toward home and love in My House (1972), and the looser mix of poems and prose in her later books, ending with The New Book (2025).
Several early collections are hard to find on their own. The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni: 1968–1998 (2003) gathers them in one volume, and The Prosaic Soul of Nikki Giovanni (2003) collects her prose, including Gemini.
A reading path
1. Black Judgement (1968)
2. Gemini (1971)
3. A Dialogue (1973)
4. My House (1972)
5. Bicycles (2009)
Everything Else Nikki Giovanni Published
Beyond the 13 key books: 22 more, grouped by kind.
Open a group with the + to see every book in it.
Poetry and collected editions
9
9 books · 1975–2020
- 1975The Women and the Menpoems
- 1996The Selected Poems of Nikki Giovanniselected poems
- 1999Blues: For All the Changespoems; NAACP Image Award
- 2003The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni: 1968–1998her first thirty years of poems
- 2003The Prosaic Soul of Nikki Giovanniher collected prose
- 2007Acolytespoems; NAACP Image Award
- 2013Chasing Utopia: A Hybridpoems and prose
- 2017A Good Cry: What We Learn from Tears and Laughterpoems
- 2020Make Me Rain: Poems & Prosepoems and prose
Essays
2
2 books · 1988–1994
- 1988Sacred Cows… and Other Ediblesessays
- 1994Racism 101essays
Books for children
8
8 books · 1971–2022
- 1971Spin a Soft Black Songpoems for children
- 1973Ego-Tripping and Other Poems for Young Peoplerevised 1993
- 1980Vacation Timepoems for children
- 1994Knoxville, Tennesseepicture book
- 1996The Sun Is So Quietpicture book
- 2008Lincoln and Douglass: An American Friendshippicture book
- 2018I Am Lovedpicture book
- 2022A Librarypicture book
As editor
3
3 books · 1970–2010
- 1970Night Comes Softlyan early anthology of poetry by Black women
- 2008Hip Hop Speaks to Childrenan anthology for children
- 2010The 100 Best African American Poemsanthology; NAACP Image Award
The years · 1943–2024
Quick facts about Nikki Giovanni
- Known for
- The poems of the Black Arts Movement, above all “Nikki-Rosa”, and for closing the 2007 Virginia Tech memorial with “We are Virginia Tech”
- 1943
- Born in Knoxville, Tennessee
- 1968
- Black Judgement
- 1971
- Gemini
- 1987
- Starts teaching at Virginia Tech
- 2007
- “We are Virginia Tech”
- 2024
- Dies in Blacksburg, Virginia
- Born
- Yolande Cornelia Giovanni Jr., 7 June 1943, Knoxville, Tennessee; grew up near Cincinnati, Ohio
- Died
- 9 December 2024, Blacksburg, Virginia, aged 81
- Education
- Fisk University, B.A. in history, 1967
- Taught
- Rutgers from 1969; Virginia Tech, 1987–2022
- Honours
- Langston Hughes Medal (1996), seven NAACP Image Awards, Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize (2022)
- Family
- Son, Thomas Watson Giovanni (born 1969); partner and later wife, Virginia C. Fowler
The red mark is 1968: Black Judgement, the collection that contains “Nikki-Rosa”.
How Nikki Giovanni Writes: Poems Meant to Be Heard
Giovanni came out of the Black Arts Movement, and her first books were built for an audience in the room: direct address, plain speech and politics stated outright. She self-published her first collection and placed the next ones with Broadside Press, so the poems reached readers through readings and small presses before any large publisher. In 1971 she recorded Truth Is On Its Way, reading her poems with a gospel choir; it won the award for best spoken-word album from the National Association of Radio and Television Announcers.
From My House (1972) onward her subjects widen, but they stay close to home: family, love, the African American family and Black women’s lives. Her later titles describe the form openly: “Poems and Not Quite Poems”, “A Hybrid”, “Poems & Prose”, and finally “Poems, Letters, Blurbs, and Things”. A short essay, a list or a letter sits next to a lyric poem in the same book.
She also wrote for children for more than fifty years, from Spin a Soft Black Song (1971) to A Library (2022), and edited anthologies that brought other Black poets to new readers. Her recordings were nominated for a Grammy in 2004.
Watch
Nikki Giovanni in Conversation at The New School
Nikki Giovanni reads some of her best-known poems and talks about her life and work with Melanie Hart at a Black History Month event at The New School in February 2021. From the official New School channel.
Frequently asked questions about Nikki Giovanni’s books
How many books has Nikki Giovanni written?
More than 25, including poetry, essays, children’s books and anthologies she edited. This page covers 13 key books, from Black Feeling, Black Talk (1968) to The New Book (2025), and lists the rest in the bibliography.
What are Nikki Giovanni’s books in order?
The key books are Black Feeling, Black Talk (1968), Black Judgement (1968), Re: Creation (1970), Gemini (1971), My House (1972), A Dialogue with James Baldwin (1973), Cotton Candy on a Rainy Day (1978), Those Who Ride the Night Winds (1983), Love Poems (1997), Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea (2002), Rosa (2005), Bicycles (2009) and The New Book (2025).
Where should I start with Nikki Giovanni?
Black Judgement (1968), which contains “Nikki-Rosa”. If the early collections are hard to find, start with The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni: 1968–1998, which includes them. For prose, start with Gemini.
What is Nikki Giovanni’s most famous poem?
“Nikki-Rosa” (1968), from Black Judgement, about a Black childhood remembered as happy, and the fear that outsiders will only write about the hardship. “Ego-Tripping”, from Re: Creation (1970), is the other poem most often taught.
What is Nikki Giovanni’s most famous book?
Of her poetry, Black Judgement (1968), because of “Nikki-Rosa”. Of her prose, Gemini (1971), a finalist for the National Book Award in 1973. Her picture book Rosa (2005) is the one most children know.
What did Nikki Giovanni say after the Virginia Tech shooting?
She closed the university’s memorial convocation on 17 April 2007, the day after 32 people were killed, with a chant-poem that ended “We are Virginia Tech.” She had been asked to speak less than 24 hours earlier, and the audience stood for more than 90 seconds.
Did Nikki Giovanni teach the Virginia Tech gunman?
Yes. Seung-Hui Cho was in one of her poetry classes. She described him as “mean” and “menacing”, said she would resign rather than keep teaching him, and he was removed from her class in 2005. Her account drew wide attention after the shooting in 2007.
Did Nikki Giovanni win a Caldecott?
Rosa (2005), her picture book about Rosa Parks illustrated by Bryan Collier, was a Caldecott Honor Book in 2006, an award given for the illustrations. Collier also won the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award for it.
Is Nikki Giovanni still alive?
No. She died on 9 December 2024 in Blacksburg, Virginia, aged 81, of complications from lung cancer. A final book, The New Book: Poems, Letters, Blurbs, and Things, was published in September 2025, and she was awarded the Poetry Society of America’s Frost Medal in 2025.
Is there a documentary about Nikki Giovanni?
Yes. Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project, directed by Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson, won the Grand Jury Prize for documentary at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival.
Footnotes
- Nikki Giovanni — Wikipedia
- Nikki Giovanni — Poetry Foundation
- Nikki Giovanni — Academy of American Poets
- Nikki Giovanni, poet and literary celebrity, dies at 81 — AP via WDBJ7, 2024
- Rosa (children’s book) — Wikipedia
- The New Book — Publishers Weekly, 2025
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“Black love is Black wealth”
— Nikki Giovanni, “Nikki-Rosa”, in Black Judgement (1968)
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