Black Authors & Stories

Last Updated: September 28, 2023

Crook Manifesto by Colson Whitehead

Crook Manifesto
by Colson Whitehead

A furniture store owner and ex-grifter leaves the straight and narrow path when he needs Jackson 5 tickets for his daughter in 1971 Manhattan.

Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

Chain-Gang All-Stars
by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

Teammates and lovers Loretta Thurwar and Hamara “Hurricane Staxxx” Stacker are the stars of Chain-Gang All-Stars, the cornerstone of CAPE, or Criminal Action Penal Entertainment, a highly-popular, highly-controversial, profit-raising program in America’s increasingly dominant private prison industry. It’s the return of the gladiators and prisoners are competing for the ultimate prize: their freedom.

Small Worlds by Caleb Azumah Nelson

Small Worlds
by Caleb Azumah Nelson

On the cusp of big life changes, Stephen feels pressured to follow a certain track-a university degree, a move out of home-but when he decides instead to follow his first love, music, his world and family fracture in ways he didn’t foresee. Now Stephen must find a path and peace for himself: a space he can feel beautiful, a space he can feel free.

We Are a Haunting by Tyriek White

We Are A Haunting
by Tyriek White

A debut, coming-of-age novel that mixes magical realism and the Southern Gothic and follows three generations of East New Yorkers struggling to maintain a connection to their history

Black Candle Women by Diane Marie Brown

Black Candle Women
by Diane Marie Brown

Follows four generations of the Montrose family, who have been living with a curse that leaves any person they fall in love with dead, stemming back to a Voodoo sorceress in 1950s New Orleans’ French Quarter.

The Splinter in the Sky by Kemi Ashing Giwa

The Splinter in the Sky
by Kemi Ashing-Giwa

All Enitan wants is to quit her day job and expand her fledgling tea business. But when her lover is assassinated and her sibling is abducted by Imperial soldiers, Enitan abandons her idyllic plans and weaves her tea tray up through the heart of the Vaalbaran capital.

Wade in the Water by Nyani Nkrumah

Wade in the Water
by Nyani Nkrumah

This novel of female power and vulnerability, race, and class explores the unlikely friendship between a precocious black girl and a mysterious white woman in a small Mississippi town in the early 1980s.