Black Authors

Romance in Marseille

By: Claude Mckay

Narrated by: Dion Graham

Length: 5 hours 40 minutes

Abridged: No

Published for the first time, the pioneering novel of physical disability, transatlantic travel, black modernism,and one of the earliest overtly queer fictions in the African American tradition.Romance in Marseille traces the adventures of a rowdy troupe of dockworkers, prostitutes, and political organizers—collectively straight and queer,... Read more

The Last Negroes at Harvard

By: Jeanne Ellsworth & Kent Garrett

Narrated by: Peter Jay Fernandez

Length: 10 hours 43 minutes

Abridged: No

The untold story of the Harvard class of '63, whose Black students fought to create their own identities on the cusp between integration and affirmative action. In the fall of 1959, Harvard recruited eighteen "Negro" boys as an early form of affirmative action. Four years later they would graduate as African Americans. Some fifty years later,... Read more

Wonder

By: Christina C. Jones

Narrated by: Sean Crisden & Wesleigh Siobhan

Length: 8 hours 45 minutes

Abridged: No

It all came down to me.



The one who followed the rules, never went looking for trouble—I kept to myself. I just wanted to take care of my family. To not constantly look over my shoulder, worried about the things that went bump in the night.



I just wanted to survive. But that wasn't meant to be.



As luck—or fate, or something—would have it, the... Read more

The Revisioners

By: Margaret Wilkerson Sexton

Narrated by: Adenrele Ojo & Myra Lucretia Taylor

Length: 8 hours 23 minutes

Abridged: No

Following her National Book Award–nominated debut novel, A Kind of Freedom, Margaret Wilkerson Sexton returns with this equally elegant and historically inspired story of survivors and healers, of black women and their black sons, set in the American South.In 1925, Josephine is the proud owner of a thriving farm. As a child, she channeled... Read more

Olympic Pride, American Prejudice

By: Deborah Riley Draper, Blair Underwood & Travis ...

Narrated by: Leon Nixon

Length: 9 hours 8 minutes

Abridged: No

In this “must-read for anyone concerned with race, sports, and politics in America” (William C. Rhoden, New York Times bestselling author), the inspirational and largely unknown true story of the eighteen African American athletes who competed in the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games, defying the racism of both Nazi Germany and the Jim Crow South.

Set... Read more

Hair Love

By: Matthew A. Cherry

Narrated by: Blue Ivy Carter

Length: 4 minutes

Abridged: No

Zuri’s hair has a mind of its own. It kinks, coils, and curls every which way. Zuri knows it’s beautiful. When Daddy steps in to style it for an extra special occasion, he has a lot to learn. But he LOVES his Zuri, and he’ll do anything to make her—and her hair—happy. Tender and empowering, Hair Love is an ode to loving your natural hair—and a... Read more

Remembered

By: Yvonne Battle-Felton

Narrated by: Yvonne Battle-Felton

Length: 9 hours 1 minute

Abridged: No

It is 1910 and Philadelphia is burning.The last place Spring wants to be is in the run-down, colored section of a hospital surrounded by the groans of sick people and the ghost of her dead sister. But as her son Edward lays dying, she has no other choice.There are whispers that Edward drove a streetcar into a shop window. Some people think it... Read more

Carl Weber's Kingpins: Harlem

By: C.N. Phillips

Narrated by: D.R. Rice

Length: 6 hours 39 minutes

Abridged: No

Kleigh never wanted Tron to fall in love with her, or vice versa. She isn't who he thinks she is, but how can she tell him that the kingpin he is gunning for, Kevin "Klax" Turner, is her big brother?She is the water to his fire and the calm to his storm. Never in his 26 years of life did Tron think he would find his equal, but Kleigh is exactly... Read more

All the Things I Should Have Known

By: Tiffany L. Warren

Narrated by: Patricia R. Floyd

Length: 10 hours 51 minutes

Abridged: No

They are forty-something, successful, financially set . . . and done with trying to find "perfect" husbands. So why can't Hahna, Twila, and Kimberly have men strictly for friendship, companionship-and especially mind-blowing sex? Their solution: be sugar mamas to gorgeous young studs who promise the best of having it all. But the ladies soon... Read more

A Phoenix First Must Burn

By: Patrice Caldwell

Narrated by: Patrice Caldwell & York Whitaker

Length: 10 hours 30 minutes

Abridged: No

Evoking Beyoncé’s Lemonade for a teen audience, these authors who are truly Octavia Butler’s heirs have woven worlds to create a stunning narrative that puts Black women and gender-nonconforming individuals at its center. A Phoenix First Must Burn will take you on a journey from folktales retold to futuristic societies and everything in... Read more

Homie

By: Danez Smith

Narrated by: Danez Smith

Length: 1 hour 32 minutes

Abridged: No

Danez Smith is our president



Homie is Danez Smith's magnificent anthem about the saving grace of friendship. Rooted in the loss of one of Smith's close friends, this book comes out of the search for joy and intimacy within a nation where both can seem scarce and getting scarcer. In poems of rare power and generosity, Smith acknowledges that in a... Read more

1919

By: Eve L. Ewing

Narrated by: Eve L. Ewing

Length: 1 hour 5 minutes

Abridged: No

The Chicago Race Riot of 1919, the most intense of the riots comprising the nation’s Red Summer, has shaped the last century but is not widely discussed. In 1919, award-winning poet Eve L. Ewing explores the story of this event—which lasted eight days and resulted in thirty-eight deaths and almost 500 injuries—through poems recounting the... Read more

The Fierce 44

By: The Staff Of The Undefeated

Narrated by: J. D. Jackson

Length: 1 hour 41 minutes

Abridged: No

Meet forty-four of America's most impressive heroes in this collective biography of African American figures authored by the team at ESPN's TheUndefeated.com. From visionaries to entrepreneurs, athletes to activists, the Fierce 44 are beacons of brilliance, perseverance, and excellence. Bringing household names like Serena Williams and Harriet... Read more

Don't Call Us Dead

By: Danez Smith

Narrated by: Danez Smith

Length: 1 hour 14 minutes

Abridged: No

Finalist for the National Book Award for Poetry



Winner of the Forward Prize for Best Collection



Award-winning poet Danez Smith is a groundbreaking force, celebrated for deft lyrics, urgent subjects, and performative power. Don't Call Us Dead opens with a heartrending sequence that imagines an afterlife for black men shot by police, a place where... Read more

Educated for Freedom

By: Anna Mae Duane

Narrated by: Rhett Samuel Price

Length: 9 hours 5 minutes

Abridged: No

In the 1820s, few Americans could imagine a viable future for black children. Even abolitionists saw just two options for African American youth: permanent subjection or exile. Educated for Freedom tells the story of James McCune Smith and Henry Highland Garnet, two black children who came of age and into freedom as their country struggled to... Read more

145th Street: Short Stories

By: Walter Dean Myers

Narrated by: Brandon Gill, Almarie Guerra, Johnny Heller, Do...

Length: 5 hours 10 minutes

Abridged: No

From the award-winning author of Monster, this collection of powerful and poignant stories about 145th Street—an unforgettable block in the heart of Harlem—celebrates African-American life in all of its glory.

“Myers is a master.” —The New York Times Book Review

On Harlem’s 145th Street, things happen that don’t happen anywhere else in the... Read more

Going Down Home With Daddy

By: Kelly Starling Lyons

Narrated by: Daxton Edwards

Length: 24 minutes

Abridged: No

"On reunion morning, we rise before the sun. Daddy hums as he packs our car with suitcases and a cooler full of snacks. He says there’s nothing like going down home.” Down home is Granny’s house. Down home is where Lil’ Alan and his parents and sister will join great-grandparents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Down home is where... Read more

F*ck Your Diet

By: Chloé Hilliard

Narrated by: Chloé Hilliard

Length: 9 hours 15 minutes

Abridged: No

*A Goodreads Choice Awards Finalist
*Named Best Comedy Book by the African American Literary Awards Show

Fans of Issa Rae and Phoebe Robinson will love this collection of laugh-out-loud funny and insightful essays that explore race, feminism, pop culture, and how society reinforces the message that we are nothing without the perfect body.

By the... Read more

A Love Hate Thing

By: Whitney D. Grandison

Narrated by: Adenrele Ojo & Barrie Buckner

Length: 13 hours 14 minutes

Abridged: No

“If you love a good enemies-to-lovers trope, run—don’t walk—to the nearest bookstore or library near you.” —BuzzFeed

"I couldn’t put it down!” —New York Times bestselling author Simone Elkeles

When Tyson Trice finds himself tossed into the wealthy community of Pacific Hills, he expects not to belong. Not that he cares. After recovering from being... Read more

All the Days Past, All the Days to Come

By: Mildred D. Taylor

Narrated by: Allyson Johnson

Length: 14 hours 37 minutes

Abridged: No

The saga of the Logan family--made famous in the Newbery Medal-winning Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry--concludes in a long-awaited and deeply fulfilling story.

In her tenth book, Mildred Taylor completes her sweeping saga about the Logan family of Mississippi, which is also the story of the civil rights movement in America of the 20th century.... Read more

Beautiful

By: Jozanne Marie

Narrated by: Janina Edwards

Length: 8 hours 26 minutes

Abridged: No

A girl, an island, and an unimaginable secret . . .



As a young girl growing up in Jamaica, Jozanne Marie's greatest desire was to restore a missing ancestral link and satisfy a longing for the one person she believed could affirm her identity . . .



Her father.



He had left for America when she was just an infant. After five years living on the... Read more

Africaville

By: Jeffrey Colvin

Narrated by: Robin Miles

Length: 12 hours 36 minutes

Abridged: No

A ferociously talented writer makes his stunning debut with this richly woven tapestry, set in a small Nova Scotia town settled by former slaves, that depicts several generations of one family bound together and torn apart by blood, faith, time, and fate.

Vogue : Best Books to Read This Winter
Structured as a triptych, Africaville chronicles the... Read more

In West Mills

By: De'Shawn Charles Winslow

Narrated by: Bahni Turpin

Length: 7 hours 8 minutes

Abridged: No

Bloomsbury presents In West Mills by De'Shawn Charles Winslow, read by Bahni Turpin.

"A bighearted novel about family, migration, and the unbearable difficulties of love. Here's a cast of characters you won't soon forget." —Ayana Mathis, author of The Twelve Tribes of Hattie

"Winslow's impressive debut novel introduces readers to both a flawed,... Read more

Duty or Desire

By: Brenda Jackson

Narrated by: Ron Butler

Length: 5 hours 23 minutes

Abridged: No

New York Times Bestselling Author

What happens when a man of unshakable conviction

meets the woman who rocks his world?

Pete Higgins is an honorary Westmoreland, a man of his word—of course he’ll put duty to his orphaned niece first. Too bad the temporary nanny is tempting him with every look. Myra Hollister captivates him. But she’s keeping... Read more