How Black Writers Have Long Made the American Road Trip Their Own Territory

Winnie M. Li wants to take the road trip out of the hands of white people. In a new essay titled “The Great American Road Trip Novel Isn’t Just For White People,” she argues that the genre has always belonged to white protagonists — from On the Road to The Grapes of Wrath to Thelma and Louise — and she wants to change that. Her own novel, a story about three Taiwanese-American siblings driving Route 66, is part of that effort.

But Li isn’t just making the argument. She’s backing it up with a reading list. Eight books, both fiction and non-fiction, that tell the road trip story from the perspective of people of color. The essay recommends Valeria Luiselli, William Least Heat-Moon, Jesmyn Ward, Matt Ruff, Shing Yin Khor, Stella Pope Duarte, Candacy Taylor and J. Wangs vs. the World.

Why Race Matters on the Open Road

Li opens her essay with a blunt question: where are the protagonists of color? The road trip narrative is a familiar sub-genre, but it has always seemed like the purview of white protagonists. That oversight, she argues, misses the point entirely.

She writes that Asian-American travel addicts are well aware that highly visible elements of their identity — like their ethnicity or gender — greatly impact how they are perceived and treated, as they move through the world. And a cross-country road trip — an exciting, liberating adventure for someone like Jack Kerouac — can be an anxious journey full of threat and potential violence for a person of color.

The difference is structural. A white protagonist can drive across America and find freedom. A person of color finds danger.

The Eight Books That Prove It

The list is wide-ranging, touching fiction, memoir, history and horror. Here’s how it breaks down:

1. Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli — a Mexican-born novelist whose fragmented road trip novel follows two sound archivists and their children from New York City to Apacheria, New Mexico, while encountering Latinx migrants displaced by American immigration policy.
2. Blue Highways: A Journey Into America by William Least Heat-Moon — a 1982 memoir of a 13,000-mile road trip on two-lane “blue highways,” written by an author who is part-indigenous and brings a sensitive awareness of race, class and historical inequality to his anthropological, poetic style.
3. Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward — a gritty, Southern Gothic road trip through rural Mississippi, told from multiple first-person perspectives, following a biracial teenager, his toddler sister and their drug-addicted mother driving to meet a recently released father.
4. Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff — a 1950s road trip novel about a Black-American family in Chicago who travel to rural Massachusetts to confront a family curse, evoking the danger of sundown towns and addressing the lasting trauma of the Tulsa massacre of 1921.
5. The American Dream?: A Journey on Route 66 Discovering Dinosaur Statues, Muffler Men, and the Perfect Breakfast Burrito by Shing Yin Khor — a debut graphic memoir by a Malaysian-born author who set off on a solo road trip from Los Angeles down Route 66, accompanied by her loyal dog Bug.
6. Let Their Spirits Dance by Stella Pope Duarte — a debut novel from 2002 about the Ramirez family, who road-trip from Arizona to the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C., to honor their fallen son Jesse, who died thirty years earlier in service.
7. Overground Railroad: The Green Book and the Roots of Black Travel in America by Candacy Taylor — a non-fiction account of the Green Book, the “bible of black travel” in mid-20th century America, documenting the enterprise and solidarity of the Black community that made cross-country travel possible despite racism and violence.
8. The Wangs Vs. the World by J. Wangs vs. the World — a novel about a Chinese-American family.

A Road Trip for Every Perspective

The list shows how flexible the genre can be. Luiselli’s novel is literary and fragmented. Least Heat-Moon’s is a memoir of quiet observation. Ward’s is grim and urgent. Ruff’s is horror tinged with history. Khor’s is a graphic memoir. Duarte’s is family drama. Taylor’s is history. Wangs vs. the World is a novel about a Chinese-American family.

What they share is the road itself. The open highway becomes a stage for identity, belonging, the immigrant experience and the contradictions of America. Li’s own novel fits that template, and she sees the connection clearly.

Reading the List

The essay makes a specific argument about representation. It’s not just that these books are good. The road trip has always been white. Now there are more books that aren’t.

The books back up the thesis. Li’s own novel is part of that pattern.

The Road Ahead

Li’s essay is a call to action. She wants the genre to stop being monochromatic.

Her own novel is part of that push. But the list is the proof. These eight books show that the road trip belongs to everyone.

The table confirms what the list already shows: the road trip is not a white-only genre. It is a national story, and now it has more voices telling it.

book list · diverse fiction · representation · road trip · travel writing