
Our guest today is Mateo Askaripour, the debut author of Black Buck which is a New York Times Bestseller. We talk about writing satire, Mateo’s respect for his readers, and the ways he looked to other authors for inspiration throughout his process.
The Stacks Book Club selection for February is The New Wilderness by Diane Cook, we will discuss the book with Vann Newkirk on Wednesday February 24th.
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Everything we talk about on today’s episode can be found below in the show notes. You can also find everything we talked about on Amazon.
- Black Buck by Mateo Askaripour
- Houghton Mifflin and Harcourt
- Black No More by George S. Schuyler
- Jenna Bush Hager
- Read with Jenna
- Instacart
- Malcolm X
- Martin Luther King Jr.
- Dave Chappelle
- Drake
- Oprah
- “Is ‘Black Buck’ the first racial satire that’s also self-help?” (Stuart Miller, The Los Angeles Times)

- Every Body Looking by Candice Iloh
- The Rhode Island Writers Colony
- Jason Reynolds
- Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
- Lee Daniels
- Lee Daniel’s The Butler (Lee Daniels, 2013)
- Darth Vader
- Roots by Alex Haley
- Rose Butler
- William Grimes
- Matthew McConaughey
- Auguste Rodin
- Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke
- Yerba Mate
- Philip Roth
- Toni Morrison
- The Sellout by Paul Beatty
- Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue
- Black Docker by Ousmane Sembène
- Tar Baby by Toni Morrison
- Heads of the Colored People by Nafissa Thompson-Spires
- Papillon by Henri Charriere
- The Intuitionist by Colson Whitehead
- Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
- If He Hollers Let Him Go by Chester Himes
- “Ep. 89 Staying True to Yourself with Jason Reynolds” (The Stacks)
- Kiese Laymon
- “Ep. 118 Living the Revision with Kiese Laymon” (The Stacks)
- Yaa Gyasi
- “Ep. 137 Specificity in Storytelling with Yaa Gyasi” (The Stacks)
- Reggie on Instagram
- Joy on Instagram
- Books on the L
- Akili on Instagram
- The Stacks’ Stamped from the Beginning Post on Instagram (February 14, 2018)
- Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi
- Morgan Parker
- Housing Works
- Muhammad Ali
- Victor LaValle
- Weeksville
- The Spook Who Sat by the Door by Sam Greenlee
- How to Make a Slave by Jerald Walker
- The Angry Ones by John A. Williams
- Jay Ellis
- Insecure (HBO)
- Steve Harvey
- Stedman Graham
- Gayle King
- Barack Obama
- Black Buck (Audiobook)
- Zeno Robinson
Connect with Mateo: Instagram | Twitter | Website
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