Black Authors

Moving Against the System

By: David Austin

Narrated by: Chimwemwe Miller

Length: 14 hours 46 minutes

Abridged: No

In 1968, as protests shook France and war raged in Vietnam, the giants of Black radical politics descended on Montreal to discuss the unique challenges and struggles facing their brothers and sisters. For the first time since 1968, David Austin brings alive the speeches and debates of the most important international gathering of Black... Read more

Miss Me With That

By: Rachel Lindsay

Narrated by: Rachel Lindsay

Length: 10 hours 1 minute

Abridged: No

A candid, witty, and inspiring collection of essays from The Bachelor’s first Black Bachelorette, exploring everything from relationships and love to politics and race
 
“The Bachelor gave me an opportunity, but I created my own happy ending.”

Rachel Lindsay rose to prominence as The Bachelor’s first Black Bachelorette and has since become one of... Read more

What Noise Against the Cane

By: Desiree C. Bailey

Narrated by: Desiree C. Bailey

Length: 1 hour 35 minutes

Abridged: No

The 115th volume of the Yale Series of Younger Poets, What Noise Against the Cane is a lyric quest for belonging and freedom, weaving political resistance, Caribbean folklore, immigration, and the realities of Black life in America. Desiree C. Bailey begins by reworking the epic in an oceanic narrative of bondage and liberation in the midst of... Read more

Never Tell

By: Stacey Abrams

Narrated by: January LaVoy & Stacey Abrams

Length: 9 hours 48 minutes

Abridged: No

This program includes an author's note read by Stacey Abrams.

From popular former gubernatorial candidate, lawyer, and New York Times bestselling author Stacey Abrams comes an audiobook reissue of her romantic suspense novel, Never Tell, written under the name Selena Montgomery.

Criminal psychologist Dr. Erin Abbott wants nothing more than to live... Read more

Star Child

By: Ibi Zoboi

Narrated by: Ibi Zoboi & Robin Miles

Length: 1 hour 30 minutes

Abridged: No

From the New York Times bestselling author and National Book Award finalist, a biography in verse and prose of science fiction visionary Octavia Butler.

Acclaimed novelist Ibi Zoboi illuminates the young life of the visionary storyteller Octavia E. Butler in poems and prose. Born into the Space Race, the Red Scare, and the dawning Civil Rights... Read more

Goliath

By: Tochi Onyebuchi

Narrated by: Adam Lazarre-White, JD Jackson, Juliana Vélez, ...

Length: 12 hours 20 minutes

Abridged: No

"A diverse cast of narrators provides glimpses of a near-future Earth devastated by climate change, nuclear disaster, and disease."-AudioFile Magazine

“Onyebuchi sets fire to the boundary between fiction and reality, and brings a crumbling city and an all too plausible future to vibrant life. Riveting, disturbing, and rendered in masterful... Read more

Augusta Savage

By: Marilyn Nelson

Narrated by: Marilyn Nelson & Grace Angela Henry

Length: 2 hours 15 minutes

Abridged: No

A powerful biography in poems​ about a trailblazing artist and a pillar of the Harlem Renaissance—with an afterword by the curator of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

Augusta Savage was arguably the most influential American artist of the 1930s. A gifted sculptor, Savage was commissioned to create a portrait bust of W.E.B. Du... Read more

An Abolitionist's Handbook

By: Patrisse Cullors

Narrated by: Ariel Blake

Length: 6 hours 47 minutes

Abridged: No

The audiobook features an introduction written and read by Prentis Hemphill as well as an exclusive bonus conversation with the author and adrienne maree brown.

In AN ABOLITIONIST’S HANDBOOK, Cullors charts a framework for how everyday activists can effectively fight for an abolitionist present and future. Filled with relatable pedagogy on the... Read more

Ahead of the Game

By: Kevin J. Ryan

Narrated by: Charles Ray

Length: 8 hours 10 minutes

Abridged: No

Prepare to be inspired by the story of Delane Parnell, the unlikeliest of CEOs now leading a gaming empire at the center of the booming, multibillion-dollar esports industry. This audiobook edition includes an exclusive interview between the author and Delane!Delane Parnell is not your typical tech entrepreneur. He was raised in a gang-riddled... Read more

Civil Rights Queen

By: Tomiko Brown-Nagin

Narrated by: Karen Chilton

Length: 15 hours 57 minutes

Abridged: No

A TIME BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • The first major biography of one of our most influential judges—an activist lawyer who became the first Black woman appointed to the federal judiciary—that provides an eye-opening account of the twin struggles for gender equality and civil rights in the 20th Century. • “Timely and essential."—The Washington Post

“A... 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

Letters to the Sons of Society

By: Shaka Senghor

Narrated by: Shaka Senghor

Length: 6 hours 2 minutes

Abridged: No

The New York Times bestselling author of Writing My Wrongs invites men everywhere on a journey of honesty and healing through this book of moving letters to his sons—one whom he is raising and the other whose childhood took place during Senghor's nineteen-year incarceration.
 
“A visceral and visual journey for the ages . . . the perfect road... 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

You Don’t Know Us Negroes and Other Essays

By: Zora Neale Hurston, Henry Louis Gates & Genevie...

Narrated by: Robin Miles

Length: 15 hours 19 minutes

Abridged: No

Introduction by New York Times bestselling author Henry Louis Gates Jr. Spanning more than 35 years of work, the first comprehensive collection of essays, criticism, and articles by the legendary author of the Harlem Renaissance, Zora Neale Hurston, showcasing the evolution of her distinctive style as an archivist and author.“One of the greatest... Read more

Manifesto

By: Bernardine Evaristo

Narrated by: Bernardine Evaristo

Length: 6 hours 7 minutes

Abridged: No

From the bestselling and Booker Prize–winning author of Girl, Woman, Other, Bernardine Evaristo’s memoir of her own life and writing, and her manifesto on unstoppability, creativity, and activismBernardine Evaristo’s 2019 Booker Prize win was a historic and revolutionary occasion, with Evaristo being the first Black woman and first Black British... Read more

How We Can Win

By: Kimberly Jones

Narrated by: Kimberly Jones

Length: 6 hours 9 minutes

Abridged: No

A breakdown of the economic and social injustices facing Black people and other marginalized citizens inspired by political activist Kimberly Jones' viral video, “How Can We Win.”

“So if I played four hundred rounds of Monopoly with you and I had to play and give you every dime that I made, and then for fifty years, every time that I played, if... Read more

Freedom!

By: Jetta Grace Martin, Waldo E. Martin, Jr. & Josh...

Narrated by: Dion Graham

Length: 6 hours 25 minutes

Abridged: No

Booklist Editors’ ChoiceWINNER of the Russell Freedman Award for Non-Fiction for a Better WorldWINNER–International Literacy Association (ILA)–Young Adult NonfictionHONOR–2023 Malka Penn Award for Human RightsTop 10–In the Margins Book AwardThere is a saying: knowledge is power. The secret is this. Knowledge, applied at the right time and place,... Read more

The Black Joke

By: A.E. Rooks

Narrated by: Leon Nixon

Length: 9 hours 55 minutes

Abridged: No

A groundbreaking history of the Black Joke, the most famous member of the British Royal Navy’s anti-slavery squadron, and the long fight to end the transatlantic slave trade.

The most feared ship in Britain’s West Africa Squadron, His Majesty’s brig Black Joke was one of a handful of ships tasked with patrolling the western coast of Africa in an... Read more

Blood in the Garden

By: Chris Herring

Narrated by: Brian Hutchison

Length: 11 hours 3 minutes

Abridged: No

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
A SELECTION ON BARACK OBAMA’S SUMMER READING LIST

The definitive history of the 1990s New York Knicks, illustrating how Pat Riley, Patrick Ewing, John Starks, Charles Oakley, and Anthony Mason resurrected the iconic franchise through oppressive physicality and unmatched grit.

For nearly an entire generation, the... 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

Admissions

By: Kendra James

Narrated by: Mela Lee

Length: 8 hours 53 minutes

Abridged: No

A sharp-witted and deeply insightful look into the storied world of elite prep schools from the first African-American legacy student to graduate from The Taft School.

Early on in Kendra James’ professional life, she began to feel like she was selling a lie. As an admissions officer specializing in diversity recruitment for independent prep... Read more

Opal Lee and What It Means to Be Free

By: Alice Faye Duncan

Narrated by: Bahni Turpin

Length: 18 minutes

Abridged: No

Booklist starred reviewBlack activist Opal Lee had a vision of Juneteenth as a holiday for everyone. This true story celebrates Black joy and inspires children to see their dreams blossom. Growing up in Texas, Opal knew the history of Juneteenth, but she soon discovered that many Americans had never heard of the holiday. Join Opal on her... Read more

Ain't Burned All the Bright

By: Jason Reynolds

Narrated by: Jason Reynolds, Nile Bullock, Tatum Marylin Hal...

Length: 37 minutes

Abridged: No

NAMED A 2023 ALA NOTABLE CHILDREN’S RECORDING!

Prepare yourself for something unlike anything: A smash-up of art and text for teens that viscerally captures what it is to be Black. In America. Right Now. Written by #1 New York Times bestselling and award-winning author Jason Reynolds.

Jason Reynolds and his best bud, Jason Griffin, had 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