Black Authors

Blood Debts

By: Terry J. Benton-Walker

Narrated by: Bahni Turpin, Joniece Abbott-Pratt, Torian Brac...

Length: 14 hours 30 minutes

Abridged: No

This program features multicast narration.

GODS MEDDLE AND MAGIC WILL BETRAY YOU, BUT THIS TIME JUSTICE WILL REIGN.

Terry J. Benton-Walker's contemporary fantasy debut, Blood Debts, is "an extravaganza from start to finish" (Chloe Gong) with powerful magical families, intergenerational curses, and deadly drama in New Orleans.

Most Anticipated from... Read more

The Kindred

By: Alechia Dow

Narrated by: Dominique Moore & Amin El Gamal

Length: 11 hours 28 minutes

Abridged: No

“Utterly swoony…an endearing reminder that true love can change the world”
—J. Elle, New York Times bestselling author of Wings of Ebony

To save a galactic kingdom from revolution, Kindred mind-pairings were created to ensure each and every person would be seen and heard, no matter how rich or poor…

Joy Abara knows her place. A commoner from the... Read more

The Boyfriend Project

By: Farrah Rochon

Narrated by: Je Nie Fleming

Length: 9 hours 41 minutes

Abridged: No

A smart and delightful romantic comedy featuring fabulous female friendships and "a great love story." --Jasmine Guillory, bestselling author of Party of Two Samiah Brooks never thought she would be "that" girl. But a live tweet of a horrific date just revealed the painful truth: she's been catfished by a three-timing jerk of a boyfriend.... Read more

The Hill We Climb

By: Amanda Gorman

Narrated by: Amanda Gorman & Oprah Winfrey

Length: 9 minutes

Abridged: No

Amanda Gorman’s powerful and historic poem “The Hill We Climb,” read at President Joe Biden’s inauguration

“Stunning.” —CNN 
“Dynamic.” —NPR
“Deeply rousing and uplifting.” —Vogue


On January 20, 2021, Amanda Gorman became the sixth and youngest poet to deliver a poetry reading at a presidential inauguration. Taking the stage after the 46th... Read more

Harbor Me

By: Jacqueline Woodson

Narrated by: N'Jameh Camara, Jacqueline Woodson, Toshi Widof...

Length: 3 hours 49 minutes

Abridged: No

Jacqueline Woodson is the 2018-2019 National Ambassador for Young People's Literature

Jacqueline Woodson's first middle-grade novel since National Book Award winner Brown Girl Dreaming celebrates the healing that can occur when a group of students share their stories.

It all starts when six kids have to meet for a weekly chat--by themselves, with... Read more

The Fire Is upon Us

By: Nicholas Buccola

Narrated by: Prentice Onayemi

Length: 14 hours 42 minutes

Abridged: No

"A great read."—Whoopi Goldberg, The View Prentice Onayemi narrates the story of how the clash between the civil rights firebrand and the father of modern conservatism continues to illuminate America's racial divide This audiobook includes as a bonus feature the original audio recording of the Cambridge Union debate On February 18, 1965, an... Read more

Above the Rim

By: Jen Bryant

Narrated by: Cary Hite

Length: 25 minutes

Abridged: No

Hall-of-famer Elgin Baylor was one of basketball’s all-time-greatest players—an innovative athlete, team player, and quiet force for change. One of the first professional African-American players, he inspired others on and off the court. But when traveling for away games, many hotels and restaurants turned Elgin away because he was black. One... Read more

Stuntboy, in the Meantime

By: Jason Reynolds

Narrated by: Guy Lockard, Nile Bullock, Angel Pean, James Fo...

Length: 2 hours 47 minutes

Abridged: No

WINNER OF THE 2023 AUDIE AWARD FOR MIDDLE GRADE!
NAMED A 2023 ALA NOTABLE CHILDREN’S RECORDING!

An Odyssey Children’s Award winner
A Schneider Family Award Honor Book for Middle Grade

From Newbery Medal honoree and #1 New York Times bestselling author Jason Reynolds comes a hilarious, hopeful, and action-packed middle grade novel about the... Read more

Against the Currant

By: Olivia Matthews

Narrated by: Janina Edwards

Length: 7 hours 35 minutes

Abridged: No

Little Caribbean, Brooklyn, New York: Lyndsay Murray is opening Spice Isle Bakery with her family, and it’s everything she’s ever wanted. The West Indian bakery is her way to give back to the community she loves, stay connected to her Grenadian roots, and work side-by-side with her family. The only thing getting a rise out of Lyndsay is Claudio... Read more

Gone Like Yesterday

By: Janelle M. Williams

Narrated by: Bahni Turpin

Length: 12 hours 15 minutes

Abridged: No

A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BUZZ PICK

A lyrical debut novel that asks what we owe to our families, what we owe to our ancestors, and what we owe to ourselves. Janelle M. Williams’s Gone Like Yesterday employs magical realism to explore the majestic and haunting experience of being a Black woman in today’s America.   
 
Gone Like Yesterday follows two... Read more

My Journey with Maya

By: Tavis Smiley

Narrated by: Tavis Smiley

Length: 4 hours 20 minutes

Abridged: No

A remarkable story of friendship, love, and courage.

When Maya Angelou and Tavis Smiley met in 1986, he was twenty-one and she was fifty-eight. For the next twenty-eight years, they shared an unlikely, special bond. Angelou was a teacher and a maternal figure to Smiley, and they talked often, of art, politics, history, race, religion, music,... Read more

The Saint of Bright Doors

By: Vajra Chandrasekera

Narrated by: Sid Sagar

Length: 12 hours 20 minutes

Abridged: No

The Saint of Bright Doors sets the high drama of divine revolutionaries and transcendent cults against the mundane struggles of modern life, resulting in a novel that is revelatory and resonant.

Fetter was raised to kill, honed as a knife to cut down his sainted father. This gave him plenty to talk about in therapy.

He walked among invisible... Read more

Pomegranate

By: Helen Elaine Lee

Narrated by: Machelle Williams & Janina Edwards

Length: 12 hours 40 minutes

Abridged: No

LONGLISTED FOR THE 2024 ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE IN FICTION

The acclaimed author of The Serpent’s Gift returns with this “deep and beautiful” (Jaqueline Woodson, New York Times bestselling author) story about a queer Black woman working to stay clean, pull her life together, and heal after being released from prison.

Ranita Atwater... Read more

The Black and the Blue

By: Matthew Horace & Ron Harris

Narrated by: Matthew Horace

Length: 9 hours 29 minutes

Abridged: No

During his 28-year career, Matthew Horace rose through the ranks from a police officer working the beat to a federal agent working criminal cases in some of the toughest communities in America to a highly decorated federal law enforcement executive managing high-profile investigations nationwide. Yet it was not until seven years into his... Read more

Real Men Knit

By: Kwana Jackson

Narrated by: Keylor Leigh

Length: 8 hours 52 minutes

Abridged: No

"If you're looking for an easy charmer, this is the novel for you."—Shondaland
 
When their foster-turned-adoptive mother suddenly dies, four brothers struggle to keep open the doors of her beloved Harlem knitting shop.

Jesse Strong is known for two things: his devotion to his adoptive mom, Mama Joy, and his reputation for breaking hearts. When... Read more

Her Good Side

By: Rebekah Weatherspoon

Narrated by: Marcella Cox & Daniel K. Isaac

Length: 7 hours 11 minutes

Abridged: No

**A New York Times Best Romance Book of the Year**

A swoony, heart-melting YA romance from beloved author Rebekah Weatherspoon about two awkward teens who decide to practice dating in order to be good at the real thing. Perfect for fans of Nicola Yoon and Jenny Han.

Sixteen-year-old Bethany Greene, though confident and self-assured, is what they... Read more

Homebodies

By: Tembe Denton-Hurst

Narrated by: Marcella Cox

Length: 10 hours 28 minutes

Abridged: No

""[A] sharp, charming and passionate debut."" —New York Times Book Review A Most Anticipated Book of 2023 by Elle, USA Today, Bustle, Ebony, Harper’s Bazaar, PopSugar, New York Post, The Skimm, and The Millions.A Best Book of 2023 by Marie Claire, Esquire, Vogue, them, Autostraddle, Betches, Gay Times, and Cosmopolitan.An insightful, propulsive,... Read more

For Black Girls Like Me

By: Mariama Lockington

Narrated by: Imani Parks

Length: 6 hours 34 minutes

Abridged: No

I am a girl but most days I feel like a question mark.

Makeda June Kirkland is eleven-years-old, adopted, and black. Her parents and big sister are white, and even though she loves her family very much, Makeda often feels left out. When Makeda's family moves from Maryland to New Mexico, she leaves behind her best friend, Lena- the only other... Read more

The Chiffon Trenches

By: André Leon Talley

Narrated by: André Leon Talley

Length: 9 hours 38 minutes

Abridged: No

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the pages of Vogue to the runways of Paris, this “captivating” (Time) memoir by a legendary style icon captures the fashion world from the inside out, in its most glamorous and most cutthroat moments.

“The Chiffon Trenches honestly and candidly captures fifty sublime years of fashion.”—Manolo Blahnik

NAMED ONE OF... Read more

How Beautiful We Were

By: Imbolo Mbue

Narrated by: Prentice Onayemi, Janina Edwards, Dion Graham, ...

Length: 14 hours 7 minutes

Abridged: No

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 OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, The... Read more

The How

By: Yrsa Daley-Ward

Narrated by: Yrsa Daley-Ward

Length: 2 hours 56 minutes

Abridged: No

From the acclaimed poet behind bone, an exploration of how we can meet our truest selves, the ones we've always been meant to become

Yrsa Daley-Ward's words have resonated with hundreds of thousands of readers--through her books of poetry and memoir, bone and The Terrible; through her writing for Beyoncé on Black Is King; and through her always... Read more

Recitatif

By: Toni Morrison

Narrated by: Zadie Smith & Bahni Turpin

Length: 1 hour 54 minutes

Abridged: No

NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • A beautiful, arresting story about race and the relationships that shape us through life by the legendary Nobel Prize winner—for the first time in a beautifully produced stand-alone edition, with an introduction by Zadie Smith
 
“A puzzle of a story, then—a game.... When [Morrison] called Recitatif an ‘experiment’ she... Read more

Wonderland

By: Jennifer Hillier

Narrated by: Eunice Wong

Length: 11 hours 38 minutes

Abridged: No

From the bestselling author of the hugely popular thrillers Things We Do in the Dark, Little Secrets, and Jar of Hearts comes Wonderland, a roller coaster of a listen. Now in audio for the first time!

After a personal tragedy and professional scandal forces homicide detective Vanessa Castro out of Seattle, she takes a new job in Seaside,... Read more

All the Water I've Seen Is Running

By: Elias Rodriques

Narrated by: Landon Woodson

Length: 7 hours 49 minutes

Abridged: No

Former high school classmates reckon with the death of a friend in this stunning debut novel.

Along the Intracoastal waterways of North Florida, Daniel and Aubrey navigated adolescence with the electric intensity that radiates from young people defined by otherness: Aubrey, a self-identified "Southern cracker" and Daniel, the mixed-race son of... Read more