Black Authors to Read (Black History Month Inspired)

Here is a list of some truly inspiring, notable black authors and some of their works:

Oprah {I’ve read some}

Maya Angelou {I’ve read some}

Martin Luther King & Coretta Scott King

Malcolm X

Alex Haley – Roots: The Saga of an American Family

Tomi Adeyemi – The Children of Blood and Bone {I’ve read}

Nic Stone – Dear Martin

Roxanne Gay – Bad Feminist, Hunger

Angie Thomas – The Hate U Give {I’ve read}

Reni Eddo-Lodge – Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race {I’ve read and you need to, too}

Elizabeth Uviebinené and Yomi Adegoke – Slay in Your Lane: The Black Girl Bible {heard them speak at a talk and loved them so much}

Nicola Yoon – Everything Everything; The Sun Also Rises {I’ve read} 

Ta-Nehisi  Coates – Between the World and Me, We Were Eight Years In Power

Toni Morrison – Beloved (Nobel Prize and Pulitzer Prize winner)

Danzy Senna – New People: A Novel

Zora Neale Hurston – Their Eyes Were Watching God

James Baldwin – Notes of a Native Son (noble social critic)

Morgan Parker – There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyonce

Octavia E. Butler – Fledgling, Kindred, Wild Seed (Hugo, Nebula, and MacArthur Fellowship winner, first ever for science fiction)

Barack Obama

Danez Smith – Don’t Call Us Dead

Jesmyn Ward – Salvage the Bones, Men We Reaped, Sing Unburied Sing (multiple award winner)

Richard Wright – Uncle Tom’s Children, Native Son, Black Boy

Issa Rae – The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl

Langston Hughes – The Weary Blues

Ralph Waldo Ellison – The Invisible Man (award winner)

Nnedi Okorafor – Akata Warrior (Nigerian sci-fi/fantasy)

Colson Whitehead – The Intuitionist, The Underground Railroad (Pulitzer Prize winner)

Jacqueline Woodson – Brown Girl Dreaming, Miracle’s Boys, Feathers (award winner and ambassador)

Zinzi Clemmons – What We Lose

Patrisse Khan-Cullors and Asha Bandele – When They Call You A Terrorist: A Black Live Matter Memoir

Jason Reynolds – Ghost, When I Was The Greatest, Boy in the Black Suit, As Brave As You

Henry Louis Gate Jr. – The Signifying Monkey (award winner)

Tayari Jone – An American Marriage

Lesley Nneka Arimah – What It Means When A Man Falls From The Sky

Kwame Alexander – The Crossover (award winner)

Amiri Baraka – Tales of the Out and the Gone

Gabrielle Union – We’re Going to Need More Wine

Tiffany Haddish – The Last Black Unicorn

W.E.B. Du Bois – The Souls of Black Folk (award winner)

Taraji P. Henson – Around the Way Girl {I’ve read}

Ishmael Reed – Flight to Canada

Kevin Hart – I Can’t Make This Up {I’ve read}

Morgan Jerkins – This Will Be My Undoing

Charlamagne Tha God – Black Privilege, Shook One

Alice Walker – The Third Life of Grange Copeland

These amazing women and men have written poetry, essays, novels, fiction, non-fiction, memoirs, and more to share their stories. Whether it is a story of the past, or a fantasy starring the elusive black main character, these are important works that deserve their space on our bookshelves and in our hearts.