The best African American authors books

What is my book about?

A young boy wrestles with what it means to have long hair. A woman finds herself accepting a relationship she knows is not good for her. A generation of successful graduates places greater value on materialism than love. Aliens and more aliens. Mystery. Intrigue. Love (and love lost). And, yes, Blackness. All in one hundred 100-word stories.

In Ran Walker's latest collection of 100-word stories, he leaves few stones unturned as he pushes the limits of the form in engaging, surprising, and even humorous ways. Welcome to The Library of Afro Curiosities.

What is my book about?

Forms of Contention tells the story of 250 years of African American sonnet influence: who wrote sonnets and when, who published sonnets, who praised and who opposed the form, who wrote about them critically, how sonnets were included in anthologies, how sonnets have been in and out of fashion, and how sonnet writers contended with each other’s works. The story of the sonnet’s appeal to African American poets from the nineteenth century through the tumultuous twentieth and into the twenty-first, even as sonnet writing remained a vexed pursuit for black poets, for black poetry anthologizers, for Black Arts advocates, and for Black Studies academics, is rich and surprising.

Forms of Contention argues persuasively that the sonnet form should no longer be considered a European form but is in fact an African American poetic form, since some of the best practitioners for the past generations have been Black poets.

What is my book about?

Written from a unique in-depth child's point of view, this book is designed to trigger a paradigm shift from automatically labeling children to patiently allowing them to grow into themselves. The author compares common disabilities chapter-by-chapter in sync with the child's intentions (or lack thereof). This sharing of the educational lives of two children, coupled with peer reviewed literature and research, provides powerful motivation for change.

What is my book about?

Even as a young girl, Mahalia Jackson loved gospel music. Life was difficult for Mahalia growing up, but singing gospel always lifted her spirits and made her feel special. She soon realized that her powerful voice stirred everyone around her, and she wanted to share that with the world. Although she was met with hardships along the way, Mahalia never gave up on her dreams. Mahalia's extraordinary journey eventually took her to the historic March on Washington, where she sang to thousands and inspired them to find their own voices.

What is my book about?

You may know of the American Negro Theatre (ANT), a neighborhood theater company in Harlem that lasted for about ten years. The writers this company produced—Abram Hill, Theodore Brown, Owen Dodson—are not household names. You may not recognize the title Anna Lucasta: a comedy about an African American family that the ANT turned into a runaway Broadway hit in the 1940s. But the legacy of this theater company—and the work of its writers, its actors, and its productions—was key for creating the popular African American culture we all do know.

To fully understand the emergence of Sidney Poitier, Harry Belafonte, and The Cosby Show, you need to know about the American Negro Theatre and its transformative artistic legacy.

What is my book about?

Alexandra Kirtridge is a 16-year-old baseball prodigy. She's also a mixed Black girl adopted into a white family, who wonders about her racial identity, where she fits in in her family and among her peers. Then she discovers letters from her Black birth father that her white adoptive parents have kept from her and is propelled into a journey that changes her life forever.

What is my book about?

This is the first-ever 2000-year history of women who interpreted the Bible. Countless Jewish and Christian women studied and wrote about scripture from 100 to 2000 CE, but their stories remained largely untold. Co-author Marion Taylor and I combed historical records, unearthing fascinating accounts of women from diverse communities throughout the world. Female rabbinic experts, nuns, mothers, mystics, preachers, suffragists, and household managers interpreted Scripture through writings, music, and art. We narrate the struggles and achievements of women who gained access to education and biblical texts. We lament writings that perished, whether deliberately destroyed or lost simply because no one bothered to save them. Often interpreting scripture differently than men did, women argued for expanded roles in the church, synagogue, and society.

What is my book about?

Even in an age of Google and Wikipedia, we continue to rely on books written by historians, scientists, economists, and other researchers to learn more about important subjects. My book looks at serious nonfiction—its authors, publishers, and readers—in the United States since World War II, the moment when the GI Bill opened college to thousands, and when paperbacks became widely available. I used the books themselves, publishers’ archives, authors’ correspondence, and surveys to learn why and how scholars and others write serious books for serious readers, and what those readers expect from the books they choose.

What is my book about?

Forms of Contention tells the story of 250 years of African American sonnet influence: who wrote sonnets and when, who published sonnets, who praised and who opposed the form, who wrote about them critically, how sonnets were included in anthologies, how sonnets have been in and out of fashion, and how sonnet writers contended with each other’s works. The story of the sonnet’s appeal to African American poets from the nineteenth century through the tumultuous twentieth and into the twenty-first, even as sonnet writing remained a vexed pursuit for black poets, for black poetry anthologizers, for Black Arts advocates, and for Black Studies academics, is rich and surprising.

Forms of Contention argues persuasively that the sonnet form should no longer be considered a European form but is in fact an African American poetic form, since some of the best practitioners for the past generations have been Black poets.

What is my book about?

Angela Lovelace is a well-trained social worker. She has been working for Child Protective Services for nearly five years and she has never had one sleepless night. But after she sees her father’s tattered picture on the apartment wall of a little boy whose addict mother just died, she sets out to uncover the truth. 

While Angela conducts her investigation, she finds her family and personal life spiraling out of control. Her brother simultaneously navigates the ravages of substance abuse, her sister struggles with infertility, and her father simply tries to keep the family together. The Lovelace family must look to their faith in God and each other to discover something they had all along, resilience.