Books have long bonded Amanda Kingsley and Ziporah Banda – whether that meant sharing moving passages from African literature or clashing playfully over the works of Sally Rooney. From Toni Morrison to Virginia Woolf, Jane Austen and Gabriel García Márquez. The novel that drew them together though, back in high school, was the horizon-expanding book Nervous Conditions, by Zimbabwean author Tsitsi Dangarembga. “Ziporah recommended it to me in school and it just… changed my life,” Amanda says.

A gripping coming-of-age story that hopscotches issues of gender, layers of African feminism, and colonialism, it was the first book published by a Black woman from Zimbabwe in English, in 1988. “African literature was niche then. We had to go searching for it. That really brought us closer together,” adds Ziporah. “I think with that in mind, there’s an opportunity to build a really meaningful community around our perspective and passion.” 

A gripping coming-of-age story that hopscotches issues of gender, layers of African feminism, and colonialism, it was the first book published by a Black woman from Zimbabwe in English, in 1988. “African literature was niche then. We had to go searching for it. That really brought us closer together,” adds Ziporah. “I think with that in mind, there’s an opportunity to build a really meaningful community around our perspective and passion.” 

Now, day to day, Amanda is a lawyer and Ziporah is at university studying English, and they both write creatively – books still dominate the chat, and they’re bringing people in to deep dive the thrillers, spar over the debut-du-jour, and wax lyrical about all-time faves in their podcast Stacked.

The booksphere has been buoyed by a major reading uptick amid lockdown – in 2020, over 200 million print books were sold, which was the highest number since 2021. On TikTok, some #BookToks videos can rack up 9.6bn views for their snappy and incisive commentary on the hottest new books. It’s also a vibrant, exhilarating time for underrepresented stories, international translations, challenging conversations, and exciting new forms. Stacked is here to capture that. “The industry is diversifying more, and there’s a real need for a critical voice to match that change – that’s what we’d like to become,” says Ziporah. 

Amanda and Ziporah were hugely inspired by the now defunct podcast Mostly Lit by Alex Reads and Raifa Rafiq, which explored books and pop culture – “like a Black British book club,” says Ziporah – and the pair spy a real gap for a new era of book criticism now, especially in podcasting. “We need to champion the voices Black British critics – which we can step up and be! – and build that community,” adds Amanda. 

They’re bursting with plans – the first season of Stacked will introduce their tastes and perspective to the audience, and episodes will feature interviews and chats with established and emerging authors, as well as industry insiders and behind-the-sceners like publishing execs, critics, and book designers. They’ll trace the fascinating trends and patterns of the book industry, and spotlight the underrepresented voices in literature past and present that thrill, think, and provoke. 

“We’re excited by what we can bring to the table,” says Amanda. “We read so widely, and talk so much to each other about what’s exciting and challenging us, sure we’re ready to share!”

Stacked is out now, you can follow and listen on all podcast apps, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts

Photos by Tino Chiwariro