Morgan Jerkins

Career Books Jerkins' first book This Will Be My Undoing: Living at the Intersection of Black, Female, and Feminist in (White) America was published on January 30, 2018, by Perennial/HarperCollins. The book is a nonfiction collection of essays including topics such as experiencing bullying as a child, feminism, dating, and attending Princeton as a Black student. Ilana Masad wrote in a review for the Los Angeles Times, "there is a brutal honesty Jerkins brings to the experiences of black girls and women that is vital for us to understand as we strive toward equality, toward believing women’s voices and experiences, and toward repairing the broken systems that have long defined our country." Roxane Gay stated in Elle, "This Will Be My Undoing is not a perfect book—there are places where I wanted her to push her conclusions further—but the prose resonates with the promise of a talented writer coming into her own." In a less positive review, Khanya Khandlo Mtshali wrote in Los Angeles Times Book Review, "Morgan Jerkins is an industrious writer whose success is undoubtedly a product of her work ethic and determination. But This Will Be My Undoing falls into the tradition of art that upholds an easy and showy moralism." The book received a starred review from Publishers Weekly and was a New York Times bestseller.

Her second book, Wandering in Strange Lands: A Daughter of the Great Migration Reclaims Her Roots was published in August 2020 under HarperCollins. It is a memoir of Jerkins' journey through several Southern states to answer long-held questions about her family's history. In January 2020, Jerkins led the assembly of The Zora Canon, a list of 100 great works by Black women writers. The list includes books published pre-Emancipation such as Our Nig (1859), up to those released in 2019. and was named senior culture editor of The Undefeated in March 2021.

In 2021, Morgan Jerkins appeared on Storybound alongside the band French Cassettes.

Personal life Jerkins is a Christian.

Works Nonfiction This Will Be My Undoing: Living at the Intersection of Black, Female, and Feminist in (White) America (2018). Wandering in Strange Lands: A Daughter of the Great Migration Reclaims Her Roots (2020).

Fiction Caul Baby: A Novel (2021). Zeal (2025).