“THE WATERBEARERS IS ONE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL AND TRUTHFUL BOOKS I’VE EVER READ. BONÉT TELLS THE WHOLE HISTORY OF THIS COUNTRY THROUGH THE RELATIONSHIPS OF AND BETWEEN BLACK MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. IT IS AS INTIMATE AND TENDER AS IT IS VAST AND STORMY. UNFORGETTABLE.”
— Imani Perry, National Book Award-winning author of South to America
Tuesday, September 16,
2025 New York, NY 7:00 PM
September 18, 2025,
Washington DC, @Politics and Prose Union Market,
7:00 pm
- In conversation with: Glory Edim, Click here
Tuesday, September 23, 2025,
Houston, TX @ Kindred Stories, 7:00 PM
In conversation with Amarie Gipson
IRL AUTHOR TALK:The Waterbearers with Sasha Bonet
Friday, September 26, 2025,
Los Angeles, @Reparations Club, 7:00 pm
In Conversation with X Mayo, Click here
November 8th and 9th in Austin
Texas Book Festival
November 22–23
Miami Book Fair
March 12–15 2026
New Orleans Book Festival at Tulane University
Saturday, March 2026 @Brooklyn, NY
Brooklyn Museum
“SASHA BONÉT’S TALE IS A TALE OF EVOLUTION AND HOPE– A MOVING FORWARD WHILE LOOKING BACK AT GENERATIONS OF WOMEN WHO HAVE SOUGHT SOMETHING BETTER FOR THEMSELVES, THEIR FAMILIES, AND ULTIMATELY, THE WORLDS THAT SOUGHT TO DEFINE THEM. I HAVE BEEN WAITING TO READ THIS STORY FOR A VERY LONG TIME.”
Hilton Als, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of White Girls
“THE WATERBEARERS IS MAGNIFICENT IN ITS NIMBLE AGILITY. PEOPLE ARE ELEVATED TO WONDERS, IF THAT IS STILL POSSIBLE, AND SASHA BONÉT DANCES ON OUR HEARTS IN THIS CLASSIC CREATION OF WILL AND WIT. ELECTRIFYING...WOW. ”
— Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy: An American Memoir
“AT ONCE PROPULSIVE AND TENDER, SASHA BONÉT’S THE WATERBEARERS IS AN EPIC LOVE SONG AND A REMARKABLE BALLAD OF GENERATIONS. BY THE END OF THIS BOOK, I KNEW I HELD IN MY HANDS ON A NEW AMERICAN CLASSIC, AND THAT I WOULD NEVER FORGET THIS FAMILY, WHOSE STORY IS THE STORY OF AMERICA, AND THAT THE WOMEN IN THESE PAGES HAD FOREVER DEEPENED MY UNDERSTANDING OF MOTHERHOOD, HISTORY, HOMECOMING, AND THE REVOLUTIONARY POTENTIAL OF LOVE.”
— Leslie Jamison, author of The Empathy Exams
“SASHA BONÉT’S THE WATERBEARERS IS A BOLD NEW ENTRY IN THE CANON OF LITERATURE ABOUT BLACK MOTHERHOOD. WITH GREAT INTENTION AND BEAUTY, BONÉT EXPLORES WHAT IT MEANS TO CARE FOR OTHERS AND FOR ONESELF IN THE MATRIX OF RACE, CLASS AND GENDER THAT POWERS AMERICAN CULTURE.”
Kaitlyn Greenidge, author of Libertie
photo by Deirdre Lewis
Sasha Bonét is a writer, critic, and editor living in New York City.
Sasha’s debut book The Waterbearers is a sweeping intergenerational memoir and cultural history on Black matriarchy in America. Forthcoming from Alfred A. Knopf September 16, 2025.
More about Sasha
“THE WATERBEARERS IS ONE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL AND TRUTHFUL BOOKS I’VE EVER READ. BONÉT TELLS THE WHOLE HISTORY OF THIS COUNTRY THROUGH THE RELATIONSHIPS OF AND BETWEEN BLACK MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. IT IS AS INTIMATE AND TENDER AS IT IS VAST AND STORMY. UNFORGETTABLE.”
— Imani Perry, National Book Award-winning author of South to America
Tuesday, September 16,
2025 New York, NY 7:00 PM
September 18, 2025,
Washington DC, @Politics and Prose Union Market,
7:00 pm
- In conversation with: Glory Edim, Click here
Tuesday, September 23, 2025,
Houston, TX @ Kindred Stories, 7:00 PM
In conversation with Amarie Gipson
IRL AUTHOR TALK:The Waterbearers with Sasha Bonet
Friday, September 26, 2025,
Los Angeles, @Reparations Club, 7:00 pm
In Conversation with X Mayo, Click here
November 8th and 9th in Austin
Texas Book Festival
November 22–23
Miami Book Fair
March 12–15 2026
New Orleans Book Festival at Tulane University
Saturday, March 2026 @Brooklyn, NY
Brooklyn Museum
“SASHA BONÉT’S THE WATERBEARERS IS A BOLD NEW ENTRY IN THE CANON OF LITERATURE ABOUT BLACK MOTHERHOOD. WITH GREAT INTENTION AND BEAUTY, BONÉT EXPLORES WHAT IT MEANS TO CARE FOR OTHERS AND FOR ONESELF IN THE MATRIX OF RACE, CLASS AND GENDER THAT POWERS AMERICAN CULTURE.”
Kaitlyn Greenidge, author of Libertie
“SASHA BONÉT’S TALE IS A TALE OF EVOLUTION AND HOPE– A MOVING FORWARD WHILE LOOKING BACK AT GENERATIONS OF WOMEN WHO HAVE SOUGHT SOMETHING BETTER FOR THEMSELVES, THEIR FAMILIES, AND ULTIMATELY, THE WORLDS THAT SOUGHT TO DEFINE THEM. I HAVE BEEN WAITING TO READ THIS STORY FOR A VERY LONG TIME.”
— Hilton Als, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of White Girls
“THE WATERBEARERS IS MAGNIFICENT IN ITS NIMBLE AGILITY. PEOPLE ARE ELEVATED TO WONDERS, IF THAT IS STILL POSSIBLE, AND SASHA BONÉT DANCES ON OUR HEARTS IN THIS CLASSIC CREATION OF WILL AND WIT. ELECTRIFYING...WOW. ”
— Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy: An American Memoir
Sasha Bonét is a writer, critic, and editor living in New York City.
Sasha’s debut book The Waterbearers is a sweeping intergenerational memoir and cultural history on Black matriarchy in America. Forthcoming from Alfred A. Knopf September 16, 2025.
More about Sasha
Sasha Bonét is a writer, critic, and editor living in New York City.
Sasha’s debut book The Waterbearers is a sweeping intergenerational memoir and cultural history on Black matriarchy in America. Forthcoming from Alfred A. Knopf September 16, 2025.
Design: Visual Intelligence
Sasha Bonét is a writer, critic, and editor living in New York City.
Sasha’s debut book The Waterbearers is a sweeping intergenerational memoir and cultural history on Black matriarchy in America. Forthcoming from Alfred A. Knopf September 16, 2025.
Design: Visual Intelligence