Written by author and activist Dr. Gloria Joseph, Lorde’s partner in life and love, the book was born from an interview conducted a few months prior to Lorde’s death. They discussed a comprehensive biography that would tell her story in full, revealing her tenacity, complexity and passion. With that mandate, Joseph sat down to the task of creating The Wind is Spirit.

Told Griot style (a western Africa oral tradition of storytelling to maintain historical ties to the past), this combination anthology and biography brings together a wide range of prominent authors and activists, including Sonia Sanchez, Angela Y. Davis, Jewelle Gomez and Assata Shakur. These contributors have submitted essays, reflections, stories, poems, memoirs and photos that illuminate how Lorde’s literary vision and her turbulent and triumphant life continue to challenge and inspire. The book also contains conversations with Lorde, Joseph’s personal photos and travelogs, and remembrances from her three memorials, in New York, Berlin and St Croix.