African American Drama

Tressie faithfully prays every night that God will send her a thug. It isn't long before her prayers are answered, and she meets a handsome ex-convict named Payce Boyd. He is a fine roughneck, everything Tressie imagined and more - that is until Tressie experiences firsthand the reality of being a thug's girl. Seeking solace and comfort in the sanctuary, Tressie soon learns valuable lessons and shocking truths about herself and others.

Doing Time: For the prison writers whose work is included in this anthology, it means more than "serving a sentence"; it means staying alive and sane, preserving dignity, reinventing oneself, and somehow retaining one's humanity. For the last quarter century the prestigious writers' organization PEN has sponsored a contest for writers behind bars to help prisoners face these challenges. The contest honors the best short stories, plays, essays, and poems among hundreds submitted annually by men and women nationwide.

Before there was E.L. James’s 50 Shades of Grey, there was Zane’s Addicted. Once described as “the hottest paperback in the country” by The New York Times and now a major motion picture, this wildly popular novel by the Queen of Erotica follows one woman’s life as it spirals out of...

Upon her brother's death, missionary Rose Sayer and Charles Allnutt, disreputable skipper of the African Queen, become allies as, marooned in German Central Africa during World War I, they fight their old launch downriver 'to strike a blow for England'.

A fearless young woman from a small African village starts a revolution against an American oil company in this sweeping, inspiring novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Behold the Dreamers. ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times, People ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS...

NOW A HULU STREAMING SERIES NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK AS FEATURED ON TODAY Two estranged siblings delve into their mother’s hidden past—and how it all connects to her traditional Caribbean black cake—in this immersive family saga, “a...

The endless hustle and crazy drama of the game is beginning to take its toll on glamorous Ritz. Then when someone pulls a drive-by on her, Ritz must come to terms with the bad blood her success has brought.

The first book in Jahquel J.’s dramatic and juicy urban romance series To All the Thugs I Loved that Didn’t Love Me Back, this story weaves a tale of love, redemption, and ambition perfect for fans of Empire. Bless has always held his younger brothers down, even when one catches a drug...

The story of Maya Angelou’s extraordinary life has been chronicled in her multiple bestselling autobiographies. But now, at last, the legendary author shares the deepest personal story of her life: her relationship with her mother. For the first time, Angelou reveals the triumphs and...

NATIONAL BESTSELLER The daughter of an affluent Black family pieces together the connection between a childhood tragedy and a beloved heirloom in this moving novel from the bestselling author of Black Cake, a Read with Jenna Book Club Pick “Engrossing . . . Wilkerson masterfully weaves...

Finalist for the National Book Award in Fiction Finalist for the Kirkus Prize in Fiction Winner of the Arab American Book Award in Fiction Named a Best Book of the Year by Time, the Washington Post, BookPage, NPR, the Guardian, Variety, New York Public Library, Minneapolis Star Tribune...

An “extraordinary, ambitious” (The Times UK) novel that masterfully explores what constitutes a meaningful life in a violent world—from the award-winning author of Open City New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice “Cole’s mind is so agile that it’s easy to follow him...

Maya Angelou has fascinated, moved, and inspired countless readers with the first three volumes of her autobiography, one of the most remarkable personal narratives of our age. Now, in her fourth volume, The Heart of a Woman, her turbulent life breaks wide open with joy as...

An electrifying first novel that shocks by its language, its circumstances, and its brutal honesty, Push recounts a young black street-girl's horrendous and redemptive journey through a Harlem inferno. For Precious Jones, 16 and pregnant with her father's child, miraculous hope appears and the...

The explosive finale of Jahquel J.’s dramatic and juicy urban romance series To All the Thugs I Loved that Didn’t Love Me Back weaves an emotional tale of love, justice, tough choices, and the unrelenting pursuit of happiness, perfect for fans of Empire. In the finale, everyone is trying...

NATIONAL BESTSELLER READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK AS FEATURED ON TODAY A spellbinding debut novel tracing three generations of a Southern Black family and one daughter’s discovery that she has the power to change her family’s legacy. “A rhapsodic hymn to Black women.”—The New...

“A dazzling debut, establishing Namwali Serpell as a writer on the world stage.”—Salman Rushdie, The New York Times Book Review A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Dwight Garner, The New York Times The New York Times Book Review Time NPR The Atlantic BuzzFeed Tordotcom ...

2022 BOOKER PRIZE FINALIST “Manifoldly clever…brilliant… ‘Glory’ is its own vivid world, drawn from its own folklore. This is a satire with sharper teeth, angrier, and also very, very funny.” —Violet Kupersmith, The New York Times Book Review "Genius."—#1 New York Times...

From the New York Times bestselling Queen of Erotica comes a novel about a testy love affair between a woman who’s had enough and a man who’s had it all. Jemistry Daniels, the beautiful, intelligent, six-figures-a-year high school principal, suffered through one bad relationship after...

From New York Times bestselling author Zane comes a thrilling erotic novel, set in the same world of Addicted and Nervous, featuring a beautiful but emotionally damaged pop star hell-bent on vengeance against the people responsible for her traumatic past. Decades after fleeing from Atlanta after...