56 Books Written by Black Authors
Eli Styles | February 15, 2024
Popular literature has featured white, cisgender male protagonists practically since the dawn of time. The classics you were forced to read in high school English classes likely revolved around white teenagers, white men, white problems or something of the sort. But Black authors have always been around, and their work deserves more recognition than it gets.
As we slide through the center of Black History Month, take some time to reflect: what are your reading habits? Do you reach for books with diverse casts of characters, or has Eurocentrism infiltrated your calming pastime like it has everything else?
Every reader should make an effort to read diversely all year round, but there is no time like the present to begin. This article contains 56 book recommendations from myself and some of Warren Wilson College's (WWC) professors, all written by Black authors. From Dr. Delicia Daniels’ favorite poetry collections to Dr. M.Z. Yehudah’s favored political theory, there is something for everyone on this list. Sit back, relax and let your next read come to you.
Eli’s Recommendations
Young Adult
If You Come Softly by Jacqueline Woodson (Fiction)
Pet by Akwaeke Emezi (Fantasy/Speculative Fiction)
The Legendborn Cycle by Tracy Deonn (Fantasy)
Meet Cute Diary by Emery Lee (Romance)
Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds (Poetry)
The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo (Poetry)
Adult
Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo (Fiction)
Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson (Fiction)
Dr. Daniels’s Recommendations
Poetry
M Archive by Alexis Gumbs
leadbelly by Tyehimba Jess
Good Woman by Lucille Clifton
Tragic City by Clemonce Heard
Red Beans and Ricely Yours by Mona Lisa Saloy
Buck Studies by Douglas Kearney
Alysia Sawchyn’s Recommendations
Creative Nonfiction
The Light of the World by Elizabeth Alexander
White Girls by Hilton Als
The Yellow House by Sarah Broom
Dear Senthuran by Akwaeke Emezi
How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America by Kiese Laymon
Memorial Drive by Natasha Tretheway
The Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward
Fiction
The Mothers by Brit Bennet (Fiction)
Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams (Fiction)
Milk, Blood, Heat by Dantiel W. Moniz (Fiction)
The Office of Historical Corrections by Danielle Evans (Mystery)
The Broken Earth Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin (Science Fantasy)
The Shadow King by Maaza Mengiste (Historical Fiction)
Luster by Raven Leilani (Literary Fiction)
What is Not Yours is Not Yours by Helen Oyeyemi (Magical Realism)
Poetry
Renunciations by Donika Kelly
Finna by Nate Marshall
Ordinary Beast by Nicole Sealey
Homie by Danez Smith
Concentrate by Courtney Faye Taylor
Dr. Yehudah’s Recommendations
Articles/Essays
"The Case for Reparations" and “The First White President” by Ta-Nehisi Coates
"Studying the African(a) Experience" by Greg K. Carr
Martin Luther King Jr. Letter from a Birmingham Jail
"Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases" and “The Red Record: Tabulated Satistics and Alleged Causes of Lynching in the United States” by Ida B. Wells
Nonfiction Books
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
Male Daughters, Female Husbands by Ifi Amadiume
An Afrocentric Manifesto: Toward an African Renaissance by Molefi Kete Asante
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
I Mix What I Like!: A Mixtape Manifesto by Jared A. Ball
I Write What I Like by Steve Biko
The Underground Railroad: First-Person Narratives of Escapes to Freedom in the North by Charles L. Blockson
Revolution in Guinea by Amílcar Cabral
Black Power: The Politics of Liberation by Charles V. Hamilton and Stokely Carmichael
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon
Exchanging Our Country Marks: The Transformation of African Identities in the Colonial and Antebellum South by Michael Gomez
The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L’Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution by C.L.R. James
Black Movements in America by Cedric Robinson
All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes by Maya Angelou
Revolutionary Suicide by Huey P. Newton
The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X
Fiction Books
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
Things Fall Apart by Chinue Achebe
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
While this list is long, it still barely scratches the surface of the wealth of incredible books that Black authors have written. I encourage you to read at least one book from this list and seek out more on your own — and make sure to read diversely all year, not just when it is convenient.