Black Authors

This Is Not for You

By: Richard Brown

Narrated by: Emmett Wheatfall

Length: 11 hours 8 minutes

Abridged: No

A long-time activist in the Black community of Portland, Oregon, reflects on his accomplishments and the work still to be done.This Is Not for You tells the story of activist and photographer Richard Brown, a Black Portlander who has spent decades working to bridge the divide between police and the Black community. His memoir brings listeners... Read more

Race After Technology

By: Ruha Benjamin

Narrated by: Mia Ellis

Length: 6 hours 38 minutes

Abridged: No

From everyday apps to complex algorithms, Ruha Benjamin cuts through tech-industry hype to understand how emerging technologies can reinforce White supremacy and deepen social inequity.



Benjamin argues that automation, far from being a sinister story of racist programmers scheming on the dark web, has the potential to hide, speed up, and deepen... Read more

Illogical

By: Emmanuel Acho

Narrated by: Emmanuel Acho

Length: 4 hours 25 minutes

Abridged: No

This program is read by the author.

From the New York Times bestselling author of Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man comes a call to break through our limits and say yes to a life of infinite possibility.

You may know Emmanuel Acho as the host of groundbreaking video series “Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man.” Or as a New York... Read more

The Secret Sunshine Project

By: Benjamin Dean

Narrated by: Amanda Shodeko

Length: 6 hours 31 minutes

Abridged: No

A heart-warming story of kindness, courage and love in all its forms from the award-winning author of Me, My Dad and the End of the Rainbow. Perfect for 9+ readers and fans of Elle McNicoll, Lisa Thompson and Onjali Rauf.

‘A huge, shining kaleidoscope of joy’– L.D. Lapinski, author of THE STRANGEWORLDS TRAVEL AGENCY

Bea’s family are happy. Like,... Read more

The Gosling Girl

By: Jacqueline Roy

Narrated by: Jessica Alade

Length: 10 hours 9 minutes

Abridged: No

‘[The Gosling Girl] interrogates the context of a child's crime and simplistic notions of evil by society and the media. It fosters understanding & empathy and draws us deep inside the protagonist's psychology’ Bernardine Evaristo

Monster?  Murderer?  Child? Victim?
Michelle Cameron’s name is associated with the most abhorrent of crimes. A... Read more

When We Were Birds

By: Ayanna Lloyd Banwo

Narrated by: Sydney Darius & Wendell Manwarren

Length: 8 hours 40 minutes

Abridged: No

A mythic love story set in Trinidad, Ayanna Lloyd Banwo's radiant debut is a masterwork of lush imagination and exuberant storytelling—a spellbinding and hopeful novel about inheritance, loss, and love's seismic power to heal.

"Roots the reader in [Trinidad’s] traditions and rituals [and] ... in the glorious matriarchy by which lineage is... Read more

Homecoming

By: Thema Bryant, Ph.D.

Narrated by: Thema Bryant, Ph.D. & Ina King

Length: 9 hours 33 minutes

Abridged: No

A road map for dismantling the fear and shame that keep you from living a free and authentic life.

In the aftermath of stress, disappointment, and trauma, people often fall into survival mode, even while a part of them longs for more. Juggling multiple demands and responsibilities keeps them busy, but not healed. As a survivor of sexual assault,... Read more

Vagabonds!

By: Eloghosa Osunde

Narrated by: Arit Okpo, Atta Otigba, Eloghosa Osunde, Ifeyin...

Length: 11 hours 43 minutes

Abridged: No

NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORKER

LONGLISTED FOR THE CENTER FOR FICTION FIRST NOVEL PRIZE AND THE VCU CABELL FIRST NOVELIST AWARD

“If you read one debut novel in 2022, this should be it.” —Los Angeles Times

In the bustling streets and cloistered homes of Lagos, a cast of vivid characters—some haunted, some defiant—navigate danger,... Read more

Moon Witch, Spider King

By: Marlon James

Narrated by: Bahni Turpin

Length: 30 hours 46 minutes

Abridged: No

“Masterfully flips the first installment on its head... James makes the mythic tantalizingly real.’” —Esquire
 
"Even more brilliant than the first.” —Buzzfeed

An Instant New York Times Bestseller and NPR Best Book of 2022 pick
 
From Marlon James, author of the bestselling National Book Award finalist Black Leopard, Red Wolf, the second book in... Read more

Peace Is a Practice

By: Morgan Harper Nichols

Narrated by: Morgan Harper Nichols

Length: 6 hours 4 minutes

Abridged: No

Read by the author.When you breathe in all the grace available to you and release everything that is outside of your control, you'll discover peace that surpasses your circumstances. All it takes is practice.If you feel overwhelmed with anxiety about the future, you're far from alone. For many of us, when we're not worrying about what is to... Read more

Black Faces in High Places

By: Randal D. Pinkett & Jeffrey A. Robinson

Narrated by: Ron Butler

Length: 9 hours 55 minutes

Abridged: No

GOLD MEMBER WINNER — LIVING NOW BOOK AWARD: SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP and eLIT BOOK AWARD: BUSINESS AUDIOBOOKA timely resource for Black professionals on how to rise to the top of their organizations or industries and, just as importantly, to stay there.Black Faces in High Places is the essential guide for Black professionals who are moving up... Read more

The Making of a Man (and why we're so afraid to talk about it)

By: Obioma Ugoala

Narrated by: Obioma Ugoala

Length: 7 hours 18 minutes

Abridged: No

A POWERFUL MEMOIR AND MANIFESTO CHALLENGING WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A BLACK MAN IN BRITAIN

“A blisteringly honest take on contemporary Britishness that manages to be both nuanced and shocking. Highly recommended.” Afua Hirsch, author of Brit(ish)
 
You’re a black man. 
 
Aggressive. Athletic. 
Feared. Fetishised. 
Policed. Politicised.
 
It’s... Read more

Just Pursuit

By: Laura Coates

Narrated by: Laura Coates

Length: 8 hours 30 minutes

Abridged: No

This instant New York Times bestseller offers “a firsthand, eye-opening story of a prosecutor that exposes the devastating criminal punishment system” (Ibram X. Kendi, National Book Award–winning author of How to Be an Antiracist) in this “compelling collection of engaging, well-written, keenly observed vignettes from [Laura Coates’s] years as a... Read more

Black Ghost of Empire

By: Kris Manjapra

Narrated by: Robin Miles & Kris Manjapra

Length: 8 hours 51 minutes

Abridged: No

If the 1619 Project illuminated the ways in which life in the United States has been shaped by the existence of slavery, this “historical, literary masterpiece” (Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy) focuses on emancipation and how its afterlife further codified the racial caste system—instead of obliterating it.

To understand why the shadow of slavery... Read more

The Last Enforcer

By: Charles Oakley

Narrated by: Adam Lazarre-White

Length: 9 hours 27 minutes

Abridged: No

In this “incredible read on some incredible days and nights in the old association” (Adrian Wojnarowski, ESPN senior NBA insider) Charles Oakley—one of the toughest and most loyal players in NBA history—tells his unfiltered stories about his basketball journey and his relationships with Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Charles Barkley, Patrick... Read more

Black Joy

By: Tracey Michae’l Lewis-Giggetts

Narrated by: Tracey Michae’l Lewis-Giggetts

Length: 7 hours 15 minutes

Abridged: No

Winner of the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work - Instructional

With deeply personal and uplifting essays in the vein of Black Girls Rock!, You Are Your Best Thing, and I Really Needed This Today, this is “a necessary testimony on the magic and beauty of our capacity to live and love fully and out loud” (Kerry Washington).

When... Read more

Carolina Built

By: Kianna Alexander

Narrated by: Shayna Small & Leon Nixon

Length: 10 hours 7 minutes

Abridged: No

This “exuberant celebration of Black women’s joy as well as their achievements” (Kate Quinn, New York Times bestselling author) novelizes the life of real estate magnate Josephine N. Leary in a previously untold story of passion, perseverance, and building a legacy after emancipation in North Carolina.

Josephine N. Leary is determined to build a... Read more

Yonder

By: Jabari Asim

Narrated by: Joniece Abbott-Pratt, Lamarr Gulley, JD Jackson...

Length: 8 hours 16 minutes

Abridged: No

The Water Dancer meets The Prophets in this spare, gripping, and beautifully rendered novel exploring love and friendship among a group of enslaved Black strivers in the mid-19th century.

They call themselves the Stolen. Their owners call them captives. They are taught their captors’ tongues and their beliefs but they have a language and rituals... Read more

Real Life, Real Love

By: RaaShaun "DJ Envy" Casey & Gia Casey

Narrated by: RaaShaun "DJ Envy" Casey & Gia Casey

Length: 8 hours 26 minutes

Abridged: No

RaaShaun “DJ Envy” and Gia Casey met when they were two teenagers attending the same high school in Queens. They have been together for an astounding twenty-seven years and married for twenty. They have remained together through RaaShaun’s growing celebrity, a devastating (and very public)
cheating scandal, and the births of six children. Now, a... Read more

The Perfect Ruin

By: Shanora Williams

Narrated by: Chanté Ellison & Nola Vance

Length: 10 hours 5 minutes

Abridged: No

From New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Shanora Williams comes a tale of revenge served ice cold—and a warning to be careful what you scheme for …

A brutal tragedy ended Ivy Hill’s happy family and childhood. Now in her twenties and severely troubled, she barely has a life—or much to live for. Until the day she discovers the name of... Read more

New York, My Village

By: Uwem Akpan

Narrated by: Elnathan John

Length: 15 hours 49 minutes

Abridged: No

Exuberant storytelling full of wry comedy, dark history, and devastating satire—by the celebrated and original author of an Oprah’s Book Club selection, Say You’re One of Them.

From a suspiciously cheap Hell’s Kitchen walk-up, Nigerian editor and winner of a Toni Morrison Publishing Fellowship Ekong Udousoro is about to begin the opportunity of a... Read more

Freedom!

By: Jetta Grace Martin, Joshua Bloom & Waldo E. Mar...

Narrated by: Dion Graham

Length: 6 hours 25 minutes

Abridged: No

Booklist Editors’ Choice
WINNER of the Russell Freedman Award for Non-Fiction for a Better World
WINNER–International Literacy Association (ILA)–Young Adult Nonfiction
HONOR–2023 Malka Penn Award for Human Rights
Top 10–In the Margins Book Award

There is a saying: knowledge is power. The secret is this. Knowledge, applied at the right time and place,... Read more

Blue

By: Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond

Narrated by: Tashi Thomas

Length: 18 minutes

Abridged: No

Discover a world of creativity and tradition in this fascinating picture book that explores the history and cultural significance of the color blue. From a critically acclaimed author and an award-winning illustrator comes a wonderful audiobook for listeners of all ages.

For centuries, blue powders and dyes were some of the most sought-after... Read more

Yinka, Where Is Your Huzband?

By: Lizzie Damilola Blackburn

Narrated by: Ronke Adékoluejo

Length: 11 hours 17 minutes

Abridged: No

“Yinka is a lovable and relatable disaster—which is to say, she isn’t actually a disaster at all...I adore her.”—Emily Henry, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Book Lovers

“Feel good, funny, and clever, it’s got smash-hit written all over it!” –Josie Silver, New York Times bestselling author of One Day in December

Meet Yinka: a... Read more