Black Authors & Stories

Last Updated: October 26, 2024

Farewell, Amethystine by Walter Mosley

Farewell, Amethystine
by Walter Mosley

January 1970 finds Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlins, LA’s premier Black detective, at 50 years of age despite all expectations. He has a loving family, a beautiful home, and a thriving investigation agency. All is right with the world… and then Amethystine Stoller, his own personal Helen of Troy, arrives. Her ex-husband is missing. A simple enough case. But even as Easy takes his first step in the investigation he trips. Easy finds himself pressed into a reckoning. All of his success cannot succor his heart. The 1970’s have ushered in new expectations of men and women, Black and White, and Easy has to make a choice that will almost certainly hasten a permanent descent, one that might sunder his soul.

Swift River by Essie Chambers

Swift River
by Essie Chambers

In 1987, the only Black person in all Swift River after her Pop disappeared seven years ago, Diamond Newberry, receiving a letter from a relative she’s never met, is introduced to two generations of African American Newberry women, gaining a sense of her place in the world and in her family.

Between Friends & Lovers by Shirlene Obuobi

Between Friends & Lovers
by Shirlene Obuobi

To thousands of Instagram followers Josephine Boateng is the dazzling Dr. Jojo, and her opinions on health and self-love matter. Her message: be smart, be significant, and do not put up with foolish men. Off-camera, Jo’s story is more complicated: she’s grappling with depression and the pressures of her career, and her love life is nonexistent thanks to a longtime unrequited crush on her best friend, romcom heartthrob Ezra Adelman. But when Ezra shows up to his thirtieth birthday party with her childhood bully on his arm, Jo realizes enough is enough.

Trouble in Queenstown by Delia Pitts

Trouble in Queenstown
by Delia Pitts

Evander “Vandy” Myrick became a cop to fulfill her father’s expectations. After her world cratered, she became a private eye to satisfy her own. Now she’s back in Queenstown, New Jersey, her childhood home. As a Black woman, privacy is hard to come by in “Q-Town,” and worth guarding. For Vandy, that means working plenty of divorce cases. To keep the cash flowing and expand her local contacts, Vandy agrees to take on a new client, the mayor’s nephew, Leo Hannah. Leo wants Vandy to tail his wife to uncover evidence for a divorce suit. At first the surveillance job seems routine, but Vandy soon realizes there’s trouble beneath the bland surface of the case when a racially charged murder with connections to the Hannah family rocks Q-Town.

One of Our Kind by Nicola Yoon

One of Our Kind
by Nicola Yoon

When Jasmyn and King Williams move their family to the planned Black utopia of Liberty, California, they hope to find a community of like-minded people. King settles in at once, embracing the Liberty ethos, including the luxe wellness center at the top of the hill, which proves to be the heart of the community. But Jasmyn struggles to fit in. She expected to find liberals and social justice activists striving for racial equality, but Liberty residents seem more focused on spa treatments and keeping up appearances. As Jasmyn learns more about Liberty and its founders, she discovers a terrible secret that threatens to destroy her world in ways she could never have imagined

A Pair of Wings by Carole Hopson

A Pair of Wings
by Carole Hopson

A riveting, adventurous novel inspired by the life of pioneer aviatrix Bessie Coleman, a Black woman who learned to fly at the dawn of aviation, and found freedom in the air.