About Savala Nolan
photograph of Savala Nolan by Senay Inanici
Savala Nolan is an essayist, speaker, and professor. Her first book, Don’t Let It Get You Down: Essays on Race, Gender and the Body was shortlisted for the 2022 William Saroyan Prize and is available at booksellers and libraries across the country. Her second book, Good Woman: A Reckoning will be published in March 2026 and can be preordered at Amazon, BarnesandNoble, Bookshop.org, Booksamillion, Target, Walmart, and booksellers everywhere.
Savala Nolan’s writing has been featured in Vogue, Harper’s Magazine, the New York Times, NPR, TIME, Forbes and more. Nolan helped created the Peabody Award-winning podcast The Promise. She directs the Thelton E. Henderson Center for Social Justice at UC Berkeley, School of Law and is a member of the Berkeley Law Class of 2011. In 2025, Savala Nolan was awarded the MLK Living the Dream Award by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights.
If you’d like to book Savala for a speaking engagement, please reach out to Christie Hinrichs at Authors Unbound via requests@authorsunbound. If you’d like to book Savala for your book club, please use the contact form.
Subscribe to Savala Nolan’s Substack here. Yoiu can visit her on Instagram, too.
“I like the voice and intelligence with which these essays come together…A vibrant and thoughtful collection.”
“Savala Nolan is powerful and complex... Like Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me, Nolan’s essays speak to both young and old Americans about our country’s pervasive history of racism.”
“A searing, unsettling, beautiful set of investigations deep into [Savala Nolan’s] mind, body, and personal history....A riveting, difficult work written with rhythm and artistry. ”