Throughout history, we have looked to artists as truth-tellers. Authors on this year’s Summer Reading List paint with their words tales of coming of age in Honduras, explorations of how patriarchy harms both men and women, education about our broken justice system, and reflections on surviving domestic violence. Let us know if you enjoy reading some of our recommendations, especially the books by leaders in our community: Comfort Dondo from Phumulani, current grantee, and Nausheena Hussain, founder of Reviving Islamic Sisterhood for Empowerment, a grantee alumnus.
Our 2026 Summer Reading List Bookmark features a photo of a beautiful Jingle Dress dance (in the photo) by Caylee, a member of the Lakota Nation and founder of Mary’s Pence grantee Kind-Hearted Women’s Society, which celebrates the resilience of Lakota traditions and the ongoing work to strengthen belonging and cultural continuity in South Dakota.
Collective Futures and Cultural Transformation
Everything for Everyone: An Oral History of the New York Commune, 2052–2072
M.E. O’Brien, Eman Abdelhadi / 2022 / Fiction
In a fictional future, a new social order takes hold after years of war, famine, and economic collapse. Told through a series of interviews, this book reimagines a dystopian future and how people from the boroughs of New York created a new way of life from the ashes of capitalism.
Prosperity with Purpose: A Muslim Woman’s Guide to Abundance and Generosity
Nausheena Hussain / 2024 / Nonfiction
Nausheena Hussain, founder of the former Mary’s Pence grantee, Reviving Islamic Sisterhood for Empowerment, highlights the many ways we can be thoughtfully invested in our finances and in philanthropic giving. She encourages living “life-rich,” making investments, and turning abundance into charity.
The Book of Kin: On Absence, Love, and Being There
Jennifer Eli Bowen / 2025 / Essays
“What’s our obligation to each other?” is the question the author tries to answer in this exploration of community. Drawing on visits to prisons, conversations about punishment and reentry, and reflections on her own life, Bowen examines what it means to care for one another. She invites readers to imagine how our communities, and our world, might change if compassion, belonging, and mutual care were at the center of our relationships.
Migration, Identity and Belonging
A Ballad of Love and Glory: A Novel
Reyna Grande / 2022 / Historical Fiction
Set during the Mexican-American War, this novel follows a Mexican healer and an Irish immigrant soldier whose lives become intertwined amid violence and displacement. The author brings forgotten stories to life while exploring life at the border over 100 years ago, migration, identity, and the resilience of people caught in conflict, themes that continue to resonate with Mary’s Pence commitment to accompanying women and communities affected by injustice.
Citizenship: Notes on an American Myth
Daisy Hernández / 2026 / Memoir and Essay
This book blends both memoir and essay as it explores the history of citizenship laws in the United States and illustrates how they affected Hernández’s own family’s immigration. It is an important, poignant, and comprehensive examination of the immigration process in the United States.
Libertad
Bessie Flores Zaldívar / 2024 / Fiction
Libertad is a queer seventeen-year-old student poet in Honduras during a tumultuous time in 2017, when a rigged election changes her life. Libertad explores familial relationships, friendships, speaking out in a toxic political environment, and what it means to be an artist.
Our Stories Carried Us Here
Julie Vang, Tea Rozman, and Tom Kaczynski / 2021 / Graphic Novel
A bold and unconventional collection of first-person stories told and illustrated by immigrants and refugees living across the United States. This anthology is a project of Green Card Voices and a collaboration between immigrant storytellers and cartoonists, creating a patchwork of memoirs of the global diaspora. It is a beautiful, empathetic portrayal of our multicultural community designed to be read by readers of all ages.
We Are Here: Visionaries of Color Transforming the Art World
Jasmin Hernandez / 2021 / Art
We Are Here showcases influential Black and Brown visionaries in the art world, who are challenging the status quo and working to create a more inclusive art system. Written by the founder of Gallery Gurls, the book features striking photography and intimate interviews, with an emphasis on queer, trans, nonbinary, and Back and Indigenous Women of Color.
Gender Violence and Resistance
Facing the Giants: A Journey to Freedom from Domestic Abuse
Comfort Dondo / 2021 / Nonfiction, Healing
Mary’s Pence Grantee, Phumulani’s Executive Director, Comfort Dondo, shares her journey of surviving trauma and domestic abuse, offering practical advice and encouragement for other survivors. This book is a love story to every woman who has ever felt like they were oppressed, rejected, abandoned, abused, violated or alone. With tools and strategies to rebuild self-worth, this book will empower women to reclaim their autonomy and rediscover their identity.
Man Up: The New Misogyny and the Rise of Violent Extremism
Cynthia Miller-Idriss / 2025 / Nonfiction, Research, Essay
This book examines how online influencers, extremist movements, and shifting ideas about masculinity have fueled a resurgence of misogyny and gender-based violence. She shows how hostile sexism is one of the strongest predictors of political violence and mass attacks. A challenging but essential read for understanding today’s political landscape. Former Mary’s Pence grantee Dr. Alex DiBranco, Executive Director of the Institute for Research on Male Supremacy, joined the author for a panel discussion on this critical issue.