African American Literature Fiction

Our family is being tested in the worst way possible. Bonds are broken, while new ones are formed. Mistakes will be made. Hearts will be broken. But at the end of the day, we're family and we ride for each other. I'm about to step into a new role, shedding the Delgato name for the last time, and stepping into my new role as Capri Inferno, the wife of Quameer Inferno, the sister-in-law of Quasim Inferno, head of Inferno Gods, and the daughter-in-law of Mina and Papa Inferno. When it's all said and done, I will make sure the Delgatos and Inferno always end up on top.

For a thousand years, Doro has cultivated a small African village, carefully breeding its people in search of seemingly unattainable perfection. He survives through the centuries by stealing the bodies of others, a technique he has so thoroughly mastered that nothing on Earth can kill him. But when a gang of New World slavers destroys his village, ruining his grand experiment, Doro is forced to go west and begin anew. He meets Anyanwu, a centuries-old woman whose means of immortality are as kind as his are cruel. Now they begin a struggle that will last centuries.

The "construction laborer" is really a wealthy felon with too many inexplicable circumstances to fathom for her narrow worldview. Will Jas share more of his complexities? Will Ashira be able to absorb them with understanding, leaving the judgment behind? Two souls, still galaxies apart, bound by love. The unanticipated UFO has collided with her world like a ferocious asteroid.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK From the National Book Award–winning author of Between the World and Me, a boldly conjured debut novel about a magical gift, a devastating loss, and an underground war for freedom. “This potent book about America’s most...

Inside this harrowing collection, you’ll uncover three thought-provoking and classic novels about slavery, civil rights, and the plight of African Americans before the abolition of slavery. With timeless narratives and poignant, dramatic prose, these books have stood the test of time to provide unique and moving accounts of life as a slave.

In his new position as head of the Baptiste family business, Saint faces many challenges. Nothing could have prepared him for the challenges that came with dealing with the alluring Naoki Childs. She was the insoluble problem his big brother, Jahad, talked about. A problem that couldn't be handled with a phone call, a meeting, or by simply emptying his clip. Saint thought he'd never be faced with a problem he couldn't handle, especially where a woman was concerned. But he quickly learned that Naoki wasn't just some woman. She was much, much more than that.

Harriet Ann Jacob's autobiography documents her life as a slave and how she attained freedom for herself and her children. Harrowing in its descriptions of sexual abuse, Jacob's slave narrative is notable for the appeal it made to abolitionist women to open their eyes to the realities of slavery. Deemed too shocking for reading audiences at the time, the book was shelved before it was published in 1861 near the start of the Civil War.

With brains, beauty, and a four-carat diamond engagement ring, Pasha Willow seems to have the perfect life. She's the successful owner of a trendy hair salon, lives in a posh condo with her handsome soon-to-be husband, drives an expensive car, and indulges in relentless shopping sprees. But behind the high-end fashion, captivating smile, and mesmerizing eyes belies a woman with a deep, dark secret.

Los Angeles, 1948: Easy Rawlins is a black war veteran just fired from his job at a defense plant. Easy is drinking in a friend's bar, wondering how he'll meet his mortgage, when a white man in a linen suit walks in, offering good money if Easy will simply locate Miss Daphne Money, a blonde beauty known to frequent black jazz clubs.

Presenting the essential writings of black lesbian poet and feminist writer Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider celebrates an influential voice in 20th-century literature. In this charged collection of 15 essays and speeches, Lorde takes on sexism, racism, ageism, homophobia, and class and propounds social difference as a vehicle for action and change. Her prose is incisive, unflinching, and lyrical, reflecting struggle but ultimately offering messages of hope.

Kyrell Knight believes life is a game to be played and thoroughly enjoyed. He rarely takes anything seriously, lives in the moment, and indulges in as much pleasure with women as possible. But the sarcasm, money, and women are an attempt to erase the memories of his past as he tries to forget what he came from. It works until his past wants to be a part of his present. Kyrell reconnects with Quinn Halifax at their mutual best friend's engagement party. They spark up a friendship that quickly turns to flames when it becomes a superficial, no-strings-attached relationship.

NYC, 2013. During late night trips on the A train, we get snapshots of Tyrone's life - his close relationship with his mother, his attempts to flirt with a coworker, Niesha, his job as a bouncer, and his dreams of going back to school. As new traumas accumulate, Tyrone's world becomes as claustrophobic as the subway car, with as few opportunities to exit or change course.

No one could have predicted even two years ago that an African American would take the oath of office as president of the United States in January of 2009. For many, the occasion marks the climax to the civil rights movement and the fulfillment of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s dream that Americans could be judged on the content of their character and not the color of their skin. This collection, with about 400 letters from Americans of all walks of life, is being created to stand as a symbol of this exciting moment in history.

African American literature is the body of literature produced in the United States by writers of African descent. It begins with the works of such late 18th-century writers as Phillis Wheatley. Before the high point of enslaved people narratives, African-American literature was dominated by autobiographical spiritual narratives. The genre known as slave narratives in the 19th century were accounts by people who had generally escaped from slavery, about their journeys to freedom and ways they claimed their lives.

In the 1930s, Black singer Marian Anderson was not allowed to perform at Constitution Hall. But with help from Eleanor Roosevelt, Anderson staged an amazing concert at the Lincoln Memorial and became an activist for civil rights.

Ojasvi "Sin" Sinclair. Fast-forwarding three years after it was finally revealed, what's in a name? Ashira now knows the man she once thought of as a felon laborer is far more than the task she'd bargained for. Yes, he's a convicted felon who works in home-building. He's also convicted in his spiritual walk, a savvy entrepreneur, laboriously supportive, a tad insane, and has possibly run out of patience for her. He's also the father of her three-year-old child.

Madam C.J. Walker wasn't just an inventor. She was also a political activist and businesswoman. Young listeners will discover that she was not only fought for civil rights, but became one of the most successful African-American business owners ever.

In 1958 Georgia, the shade of a 13-year-old black girl's skin can make the difference in her fate. Tangy Mae is the smartest of her mother's 10 children, but she is also the darkest complected. The Quinns - all different skin shades, all with unknown fathers - live with their charismatic, beautiful, and tyrannical mother, Rozelle, in poverty on the fringes of a Georgia town where Jim Crow rules. Rozelle's children live in fear of her mood swings and her violence, but they are devoted to her. Rozelle pulls her children out of school when they are 12 years old so that they can help support her by going to work.

Paris, 1941. With Nazi occupation imminent, journalist Elodie Mitchell plans to return home to Chicago. But an unexpected invitation to a Josephine Baker show changes everything. Mistaken for the star, Elodie is whisked backstage, where she uncovers an underground resistance movement hidden beneath the glitz and glamour. Drawn into a whisper network of spies, Elodie accepts a perilous mission: to go undercover as Josephine's cousin and gather vital intelligence.

Ross Gay’s The Book of Delights is a genre-defying collection of essays that record the small joys that occurred in one year, from birthday to birthday, and that we often overlook in our busy lives. His is a meditation on delight that takes a clear-eyed view of the complexities, even the terrors, in his life, including living in America as a Black man; the ecological and psychic violence of our consumer culture; the loss of those he loves.