Nonfiction Books about Witches

Lemme tell you about the amazing eggplant empanadas I had. They were so unexpectedly good! This page has other recipes for more vegetarian Argentinian empanadas, which all sound good, but I chose this one in particular because the chimichurri looked perfect. So, so good.

Now for some nonfiction.

Washuta grew up surrounded by appropriations of her Indigenous spirituality in the form of things like “witch kits” full of sage and other trendy items. Once she experiences addiction, PTSD, abuse, and a psychiatric misdiagnosis, she undergoes a healing process that involves realizing the power of her ancestors. This collection of essays is about her journey, and is full of thoughts on colonization, love, and pop culture.

This just came out and is about iconic magical women and nonbinary people throughout U.S. history. The blurb mentions it covers all matter of witchery, “from Salem to WitchTok,” and everyone from voodoo queen Marie Laveau to Elvira. It also gets into the politics and differences in culture between occult practitioners.

Funnily enough, when I try to find nonfiction books on hoodoo, they are usually overly dry looking or written exclusively by white people. There’s nothing inherently wrong with either, but I do think books on a Black spiritual practice should have a few more written by the people from the actual culture. That’s partially why Mojo Workin’ by Hazzard-Donald is so good. It’s engaging and has that extra spark that comes from someone writing about their own culture. And the author’s tracing of hoodoo from traditional African religions to modern-day Black church practices is interesting to say the least.

Chollet, a celebrated French feminist writer, looks at the history of witches and what they have represented according to society. She identifies three main types of women who were at risk for being labeled a witch, a label that basically meant the inverse of gender norms and ostracization. This has the added bonus of having a forward from Carmen Maria Machado.