Black Authors

James

By: Percival Everett

Narrated by: Dominic Hoffman

Length: 7 hours 48 minutes

Abridged: No

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • A brilliant, action-packed reimagining of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, both harrowing and darkly humorous, told from the enslaved Jim's point of view

NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST • ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW'S 10 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR • SHORTLISTED FOR THE... Read more

Parable of the Sower

By: Octavia E. Butler

Narrated by: Lynne Thigpen

Length: 12 hours 2 minutes

Abridged: No

Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author Octavia E. Butler paints a stunning portrait of an all-too-believable near future. As with Kindred and her other critically-acclaimed novels, Parable of the Sower skillfully combines startling visionary and socially realistic concepts. God is change. That is the central truth of the Earthseed movement, whose... Read more

Legendborn

By: Tracy Deonn

Narrated by: Joniece Abbott-Pratt

Length: 18 hours 54 minutes

Abridged: No

An Instant New York Times Bestseller!
Winner of the Coretta Scott King - John Steptoe for New Talent Author Award

Filled with mystery and an intriguingly rich magic system, Tracy Deonn’s YA contemporary fantasy reinvents the King Arthur legend and “braids together Southern folk traditions and Black Girl Magic into a searing modern tale of grief,... Read more

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store

By: James McBride

Narrated by: Dominic Hoffman

Length: 12 hours 21 minutes

Abridged: No

THE RUNAWAY NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK • A NEW YORK TIMES READERS PICK: 100 BEST BOOKS OF THE 21ST CENTURY

WINNER OF THE 2024 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS PRIZE FOR AMERICAN FICTION

FROM ONE OF TIME MAGAZINE'S 100 MOST INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE OF 2024

NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY NPR/FRESH AIR, WASHINGTON POST, THE NEW YORKER, AND... Read more

Chain Gang All Stars: A Read with Jenna Pick

By: Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

Narrated by: Shayna Small, Aaron Goodson, Michael Crouch & L...

Length: 13 hours 38 minutes

Abridged: No

A NEW YORK TIMES TOP TEN BOOK OF THE YEAR • FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD IN FICTION • A READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK • NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Two top women gladiators fight for their freedom within a depraved private prison system not so far-removed from America’s own in this explosive, hotly-anticipated debut novel from the New York... Read more

The Vanishing Half

By: Brit Bennett

Narrated by: Shayna Small

Length: 11 hours 33 minutes

Abridged: No

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR

NAMED A BEST BOOK OF 2020 BY THE NEW YORK TIMES • THE WASHINGTON POST • NPR • PEOPLE • TIME MAGAZINE • VANITY FAIR • GLAMOUR

New York Times Readers Pick: 100 Best Books of the 21st Century

2021 WOMEN'S PRIZE FINALIST

“Bennett’s tone and style recalls James Baldwin and... Read more

Caste (Oprah's Book Club)

By: Isabel Wilkerson

Narrated by: Robin Miles

Length: 15 hours 10 minutes

Abridged: No

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NEW YORK TIMES READERS PICK: 100 BEST BOOKS OF THE 21st CENTURY • OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK • “An instant American classic and almost certainly the keynote nonfiction book of the American century thus far.”—Dwight Garner, The New York Times

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Warmth of Other Suns examines the... Read more

The City We Became

By: N. K. Jemisin

Narrated by: Robin Miles

Length: 16 hours 12 minutes

Abridged: No

Three-time Hugo Award-winning and New York Times bestselling author N.K. Jemisin crafts her most incredible novel yet, a "glorious" story of culture, identity, magic, and myths in contemporary New York City.

In Manhattan, a young grad student gets off the train and realizes he doesn't remember who he is, where he's from, or even his own name. But... Read more

The Fifth Season

By: N. K. Jemisin

Narrated by: Robin Miles

Length: 15 hours 27 minutes

Abridged: No

At the end of the world, a woman must hide her secret power and find her kidnapped daughter in this "intricate and extraordinary" Hugo Award winning novel of power, oppression, and revolution. (The New York Times)

This is the way the world ends. . .for the last time.

It starts with the great red rift across the heart of the world's sole continent,... Read more

How to Be an Antiracist

By: Ibram X. Kendi

Narrated by: Ibram X. Kendi

Length: 10 hours 29 minutes

Abridged: No

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the National Book Award–winning author of Stamped from the Beginning comes a “groundbreaking” (Time) approach to understanding and uprooting racism and inequality in our society and in ourselves—now updated, with a new preface.

“The most courageous book to date on the problem of race in the Western mind.”—The... Read more

The Sum of Us

By: Heather McGhee

Narrated by: Heather McGhee

Length: 11 hours 8 minutes

Abridged: No

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD • One of today’s most insightful and influential thinkers offers a powerful exploration of inequality and the lesson that generations of Americans have failed to learn: Racism has a cost for everyone—not just for people of color.

WINNER OF THE PORCHLIGHT BUSINESS BOOK AWARD • ONE... Read more

A Promised Land

By: Barack Obama

Narrated by: Barack Obama

Length: 29 hours 9 minutes

Abridged: No

A riveting, deeply personal account of history in the making—from the president who inspired us to believe in the power of democracy

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NAACP IMAGE AWARD NOMINEE • NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW AND PEOPLE

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Washington Post •... Read more

Razorblade Tears

By: S. A. Cosby

Narrated by: Adam Lazarre-White

Length: 12 hours 22 minutes

Abridged: No

Winner of the ThrillerFest 2022 Audiobook of the Year Award!

“Lazarre-White's commanding performance is equally riveting. He creates an irresistible listening experience” –AudioFile Magazine

“Superb...Cuts right to the heart of the most important questions of our times.” —Michael Connelly,
#1 New York Times bestselling author

A Black father. A... Read more

Bloodmarked

By: Tracy Deonn

Narrated by: Joniece Abbott-Pratt

Length: 22 hours 31 minutes

Abridged: No

An instant #1 New York Times bestseller!
“Deonn expertly weaves together a universe that both shines a light on the pervasive nature of racism and also harnesses the complexity of Black identity within this space. Deonn writes so much more than simple fantasies or Arthurian retellings.” —Booklist (starred review)

The “worthy successor to an... Read more

Kindred

By: Octavia E. Butler

Narrated by: Kim Staunton

Length: 10 hours 54 minutes

Abridged: No

The first science fiction written by a Black woman, Kindred has become a cornerstone of Black American literature. This combination of slave memoir, fantasy, and historical fiction is a novel of rich literary complexity. Having just celebrated her 26th birthday in 1976 California, Dana, an African-American woman, is suddenly and inexplicably... Read more

How to Say Babylon

By: Safiya Sinclair

Narrated by: Safiya Sinclair

Length: 16 hours 46 minutes

Abridged: No

National Book Critics Circle Award Winner
A New York Times Notable Book
Best Book of the Year for The Washington Post* The New Yorker * Time * The Atlantic * Los Angeles Times * NPR * Harper’s Bazaar * Vulture * Town & Country * San Francisco Chronicle * Christian Science Monitor * Mother Jones * Barack Obama
A Read with Jenna Today Show... Read more

All the Sinners Bleed

By: S. A. Cosby

Narrated by: Adam Lazarre-White

Length: 13 hours 42 minutes

Abridged: No

Winner of the 2024 Audie Award for Thriller/Suspense!

"Lazarre-White masterfully portrays people of multiple races, old and young. He also delivers Cosby's reflections on family, grief, and faith with genuine introspection and without distracting from the tense plotlines...This is a gripping, timely tale—beautifully told." —AudioFile (Earphones... Read more

Parable of the Talents

By: Octavia E. Butler

Narrated by: Patricia R. Floyd, Sisi Aisha Johnson & Peter J...

Length: 15 hours 28 minutes

Abridged: No

Best-selling author Octavia E. Butler's acclaimed novels have won numerous awards, and she is a recipient of a "genius" grant from the MacArthur Foundation. Parable of the Talents was selected as one of the best books of the year by Publishers Weekly. Environmental devastation and economic chaos have turned America into a land of horrifying... Read more

Madness

By: Antonia Hylton

Narrated by: Antonia Hylton

Length: 11 hours 2 minutes

Abridged: No

In the tradition of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, a page-turning 93-year history of Crownsville Hospital, one of the nation’s last segregated asylums, told by an award-winning journalist on her decade-long search for sanity in America’s mental healthcare system. 

On a cold day in March of 1911, officials marched twelve Black men into the... Read more

There's Always This Year

By: Hanif Abdurraqib

Narrated by: Hanif Abdurraqib

Length: 8 hours 40 minutes

Abridged: No

LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD • NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • #1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A “powerful” (The Guardian) reflection on basketball, life, and home—from the author of the National Book Award finalist A Little Devil in America

“Mesmerizing . . . not only the most original sports book I’ve ever read but one of the most moving books... Read more

How the Word Is Passed

By: Clint Smith

Narrated by: Clint Smith

Length: 10 hours 6 minutes

Abridged: No

This compelling #1 New York Times bestseller examines the legacy of slavery in America—and how both history and memory continue to shape our everyday lives.

Beginning in his hometown of New Orleans, Clint Smith leads the reader on an unforgettable tour of monuments and landmarks—those that are honest about the past and those that are not—that... Read more

Becoming

By: Michelle Obama

Narrated by: Michelle Obama

Length: 19 hours 1 minute

Abridged: No

An intimate, powerful, and inspiring memoir by the former First Lady of the United States
 
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • WATCH THE EMMY-NOMINATED NETFLIX ORIGINAL DOCUMENTARY • OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK • NAACP IMAGE AWARD WINNER • ONE OF ESSENCE’S 50 MOST IMPACTFUL BLACK BOOKS OF THE PAST 50 YEARS

In a life filled with meaning and accomplishment,... Read more

Children of Blood and Bone

By: Tomi Adeyemi

Narrated by: Bahni Turpin

Length: 17 hours 44 minutes

Abridged: No

*Winner of the Audie Award for Audiobook of the Year*

*This program is narrated by acclaimed reader Bahni Turpin, whose past work includes The Hate U Give and The Underground Railroad*

"Bahni Turpin's breathtaking narration of this exhilarating novel will keep listeners rooted to their seats, listening intently...an audiobook not to be missed." —... Read more

Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You

By: Jason Reynolds & Ibram X. Kendi

Narrated by: Jason Reynolds

Length: 4 hours 11 minutes

Abridged: No

The #1 New York Times bestseller and a USAToday bestseller!
A timely, crucial, and empowering exploration of racism--and antiracism--in America

This is NOT a history book.
This is a book about the here and now.
A book to help us better understand why we are where we are.
A book about race.

The construct of race has always been used to gain and keep... Read more