Black Authors

Everything's Trash, But It's Okay

By: Phoebe Robinson

Narrated by: Phoebe Robinson

Length: 8 hours 55 minutes

Abridged: No

DON’T MISS PHOEBE ROBINSON’S COMEDY SERIES EVERYTHING’S TRASH—NOW ON FREEFORM!

New York Times bestselling author and star of 2 Dope Queens Phoebe Robinson is back with a new, hilarious, and timely essay collection on gender, race, dating, and the dumpster fire that is our world.

Wouldn't it be great if life came with instructions? Of course, but... Read more

Stories from The Tenants Downstairs

By: Sidik Fofana

Narrated by: Joniece Abbott-Pratt, Nile Bullock, Sidik Fofan...

Length: 6 hours 4 minutes

Abridged: No

SELECTED FOR THE RUSA 2023 LISTEN LIST FOR OUTSTANDING AUDIOBOOK NARRATION!

WINNER of the Gotham Book Prize * Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award, and the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence * Longlisted for the Story Prize

Named a BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR by NPR, Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal, Chicago Review of... Read more

Dear Miss Metropolitan

By: Carolyn Ferrell

Narrated by: Bahni Turpin

Length: 11 hours 12 minutes

Abridged: No

A finalist for the 2022 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction
A finalist for the 2022 PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel

Introducing an extraordinary and original writer whose first novel explores the intersections of grief and rage, personal strength and healing—and what we owe one another.

Fern seeks refuge from her mother’s pill-popping and boyfriends... Read more

A Fortune For Your Disaster

By: Hanif Abdurraqib

Narrated by: Hanif Abdurraqib

Length: 1 hour 36 minutes

Abridged: No

In his much-anticipated follow-up to The Crown Ain't Worth Much, poet, essayist, biographer, and music critic Hanif Abdurraqib has written a book of poems about how one rebuilds oneself after a heartbreak, the kind that renders them a different version of themselves than the one they knew. It's a book about a mother's death, and admitting that... Read more

Survival of the Thickest

By: Michelle Buteau

Narrated by: Michelle Buteau

Length: 6 hours 34 minutes

Abridged: No

*Now a Netflix series—Season 2 coming soon!*

Stand-up comedian and star of Netflix’s Michelle Buteau: A Buteau-ful Mind at Radio City Music Hall and creator and star of Survival of the Thickest delivers a collection of “hilarious…bracingly honest” (Real Simple) essays in her unique voice, cheeky swagger, and unapologetic frankness that’s “one... Read more

One of Us Knows

By: Alyssa Cole

Narrated by: Susan Dalian

Length: 10 hours 13 minutes

Abridged: No

From the critically acclaimed and New York Times bestselling author of When No One Is Watching comes a riveting thriller about the new caretaker of a historic estate who finds herself trapped on an island with a murderer—and the ghosts of her past. Years after a breakdown and a diagnosis of dissociative identity disorder derailed her historical... Read more

Milk Blood Heat

By: Dantiel W. Moniz

Narrated by: Machelle Williams

Length: 5 hours 31 minutes

Abridged: No

A livewire debut from Dantiel W. Moniz, one of the most exciting discoveries in today's literary landscape, Milk Blood Heat depicts the sultry lives of Floridians in intergenerational tales that contemplate human connection, race, womanhood, inheritance, and the elemental darkness in us all. Set among the cities and suburbs of Florida, each... Read more

Dinner for One

By: Sutanya Dacres

Narrated by: Imani Jade Powers

Length: 8 hours 32 minutes

Abridged: No

From podcast host Sutanya Dacres comes Dinner for One, an unforgettable memoir of how she rebuilt her life after her American-in-Paris fairy tale shattered, starting with cooking dinner for herself in her Montmartre kitchen

When Sutanya Dacres married her French boyfriend and moved to Paris at twenty-seven, she felt like she was living out her... Read more

Another Country

By: James Baldwin

Narrated by: Dion Graham

Length: 16 hours 13 minutes

Abridged: No

Published in 1962, this is an emotionally intense novel of love, hatred, race, and America in the 1950s. Set in Greenwich Village, Harlem, and France, among other locales, Another Country tells the story of the suicide of jazz musician Rufus Scott and the friends who search for an understanding of his life and death, discovering uncomfortable... Read more

Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute

By: Talia Hibbert

Narrated by: Amina Koroma & Jonathan Andrew Hume

Length: 9 hours 15 minutes

Abridged: No

From the New York Times bestselling author of the Brown Sisters trilogy, comes a laugh-out-loud story about a quirky content creator and a clean-cut athlete testing their abilities to survive the great outdoors—and each other.

Bradley Graeme is pretty much perfect. He’s a star football player, manages his OCD well (enough), and comes out on top... Read more

Blood Like Magic

By: Liselle Sambury

Narrated by: Joniece Abbott-Pratt

Length: 16 hours 14 minutes

Abridged: No

“High stakes, big heart, and lots of Black Girl Magic…unputdownable.” —Aiden Thomas, New York Times bestselling author of Cemetery Boys

A rich, dark urban fantasy debut following a teen witch who is given a horrifying task: sacrificing her first love to save her family’s magic. The problem is, she’s never been in love—she’ll have to find the... Read more

Chaos Theory

By: Nic Stone

Narrated by: Nic Stone & Dion Graham

Length: 5 hours 41 minutes

Abridged: No

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of Dear Martin delivers a gripping romance about two teens: a certified genius living with a diagnosed mental disorder and a politician's son who is running from his own addiction and grief. Don't miss this gut punch of a novel about mental health, loss, and discovering you are worthy of love.

Scars exist... Read more

Four Eids and a Funeral

By: Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé & Adiba Jaigirdar

Narrated by: Farah Kidwai, Sandra Okuboyejo & Shahjehan Khan

Length: 8 hours 23 minutes

Abridged: No

Ex-best friends, Tiwa and Said, must work together to save their Islamic Center from demolition, in this romantic story of rekindling and rebuilding by award-winning authors Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé & Adiba Jaigirdar!

The town of New Crosshaven has it all—even its own infamous love story.

These days, Said Hossain spends most of his time away... Read more

The Jigsaw Man

By: Nadine Matheson

Narrated by: Davine Henry

Length: 14 hours 8 minutes

Abridged: No

"A heart-pounding roller coaster ride."—Tami Hoag, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Boy

*A Crime Reads Most Anticipated Book of 2021*

A serial killer and his copycat are locked in a violent game of cat and mouse. Can DI Anjelica Henley stop them before it’s too late?

On the day she returns to active duty with the Serial Crimes Unit,... Read more

We're Going to Need More Wine

By: Gabrielle Union

Narrated by: Gabrielle Union

Length: 7 hours 48 minutes

Abridged: No

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERNominated for the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary WorkNamed a Best Book of the Year by The RootChosen by Emma Straub as a Best New Celebrity Memoir“A book of essays as raw and honest as anyone has ever produced.” — Lena Dunham, Lenny LetterIn the spirit of Amy Poehler’s Yes Please, Lena Dunham’s Not That Kind... Read more

What the Fireflies Knew

By: Kai Harris

Narrated by: Zenzi Williams

Length: 8 hours 35 minutes

Abridged: No

An NAACP Image Award Nominee
Longlisted for the Center for Fiction's First Novel Prize
A Marie Claire Book Club pick

Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2022 by *Marie Claire* *Teen Vogue* *Buzzfeed* *Essence* *Ms. Magazine* *NBCNews.com* *Bookriot* *Bookbub* and more! 

“Harris rewrites the coming-of-age story with Black girlhood at the center.”
—New... Read more

The Prophets

By: Robert Jones, Jr.

Narrated by: Karen Chilton

Length: 14 hours 52 minutes

Abridged: No

Best Book of the Year
NPR • The Washington Post • Boston Globe • TIME • USA Today • Entertainment Weekly • Real Simple • Parade • Buzzfeed • Electric Literature • LitHub • BookRiot • PopSugar • Goop • Library Journal • BookBub • KCRW

• Finalist for the National Book Award
• One of the New York Times Notable Books of the Year
• One of the New York... Read more

We're Alone

By: Edwidge Danticat

Narrated by: Edwidge Danticat

Length: 4 hours 35 minutes

Abridged: No

Tracing a loose arc from Edwidge Danticat’s childhood to the COVID-19 pandemic and recent events in Haiti, the essays gathered in We’re Alone include personal narrative, reportage, and tributes to mentors and heroes such as Toni Morrison, Paule Marshall, Gabriel García Márquez, and James Baldwin that explore several abiding themes: environmental... Read more

The Secret Library

By: Kekla Magoon

Narrated by: Nekia Renee Martin

Length: 9 hours 55 minutes

Abridged: No

Travel through time with National Book Award Finalist Kekla Magoon in a page-turning fantasy adventure about family secrets and finding the courage to plot your own life story.

Since Grandpa died, Dally’s days are dull and restricted. She’s eleven and a half years old, and her exacting single mother is already preparing her to take over the... Read more

The Black Queen

By: Jumata Emill

Narrated by: Angel Pean & Erin Spencer

Length: 10 hours 53 minutes

Abridged: No

Nova Albright was going to be the first Black homecoming queen at Lovett High—but now she's dead. Murdered on coronation night. Fans of One of Us Is Lying and The Other Black Girl will love this unputdownable thriller.

Nova Albright, the first Black homecoming queen at Lovett High, is dead. Murdered the night of her coronation, her body found the... Read more

skin & bones

By: Renée Watson

Narrated by: Zenzi Williams

Length: 9 hours 7 minutes

Abridged: No

From the acclaimed #1 New York Times bestselling author comes a soulful and lyrical novel exploring sisterhood, motherhood, faith, love, and ultimately what gets passed down from one generation to the next
 
At 40, Lena Baker is at a steady and stable moment in life—between wine nights with her two best friends and her wedding just weeks away,... Read more

How the Boogeyman Became a Poet

By: Tony Keith Jr.

Narrated by: Tony Keith Jr.

Length: 5 hours 3 minutes

Abridged: No

Odyssey Award for Audiobook Excellence WinnerPoet, writer, and hip-hop educator Tony Keith Jr. makes his debut with a powerful YA memoir in verse, tracing his journey from being a closeted gay Black teen battling poverty, racism, and homophobia to becoming an openly gay first-generation college student who finds freedom in poetry. Perfect for... Read more

Vinyl Moon

By: Mahogany L. Browne

Narrated by: Bahni Turpin

Length: 4 hours 57 minutes

Abridged: No

A teen girl hiding the scars of a past relationship finds home and healing in the words of strong Black writers. A beautiful sophomore novel from a critically acclaimed author and poet that explores how words have the power to shape and uplift our world even in the midst of pain.

"A true embodiment of the term Black Girl Magic.” –Booklist
 
When... Read more

The Black Kids

By: Christina Hammonds Reed

Narrated by: Kiersey Clemons

Length: 8 hours 55 minutes

Abridged: No

A New York Times bestseller
A William C. Morris Award Finalist

“Should be required reading in every classroom.” —Nic Stone, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Dear Martin
“A true love letter to Los Angeles.” —Brandy Colbert, award-winning author of Little & Lion
“A brilliantly poetic take on one of the most defining moments in Black... Read more