Fiction
The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls
Anissa Gray, Berkley, Feb. 2019
In this debut novel, Gray tells the story of a trio of adult middle-class sisters who must come to terms with a complicated family history.
Friday Black: Stories
Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, HMH, out now
Twelve vividly imagined new-wave horror stories constructed around the violence, absurd injustice, and racially driven pain endured by ordinary black Americans.
How Long ’Til Black Future Month
N.K. Jemisin, Orbit, out now
In her first short fiction collection, the Hugo Award–winning novelist offers 22 stories focused on destruction, rebirth, and redemption, by an author who is redefining the nature of science fiction and fantasy.
John Woman
Walter Mosley, AMP, out now
A new novel by the acclaimed author that tells the story of a biracial boy who grows up to become an unconventional history professor, while the legacy of a monstrous crime lingers in the shadows of his life.
The Old Drift
Namwali Serpell, Hogarth, Mar. 2019
An acclaimed debut novel that offers the story of a small African nation that opens in a colonial settlement on the Zambezi river called the Old Drift before taking the reader on a playful panoramic historical narrative arch that combines fairy tale, romance, and science fiction.
Parable of the Sower
Octavia Butler, Grand Central, Apr. 2019
A new edition (with a new introduction) of Butler’s classic dystopian novel, a tale of survival and vision by the grand dame of science fiction.
Washington Black
Esi Edugyan, Knopf, out now
Wash, an 11-year-old field slave, is terrified when chosen as the manservant of his master’s brother, an eccentric naturalist and explorer, who will soon take him on a dazzling adventure (in a flying machine) that begins in slavery and ends in a world of dignity and true freedom.
Nonfiction
Becoming
Michelle Obama, Crown, out now
The first African-American first lady of the U.S. recounts her life—beginning with her childhood on the South Side of Chicago, on through her accomplishments as a professional and as a mother, and finally to her historic and influential tenure at the White House.
Beyond the Call: Three Women on the Front Lines in Afghanistan
Eileen Rivers, Da Capo, Nov.
Rivers follows three women members of an army combat female engagement team as they work to gain important wartime intelligence as well as gaining the trust of local Afghan women.
The Common Wind: Afro-American Currents in the Age of the Haitian Revolution
Julius Scott, Verso, out now
The first edition of a long unpublished but celebrated dissertation renowned for decades for its imaginative thesis—communication between slaves and sailors in the Carribbean as emancipation drew near—and for its engaging, gracefully written prose.
Contact High: A Visual History of Hip Hop
Vikki Toback, Clarkson Potter, out now
A fascinating look at the history of iconic hip-hop photographs, displayed alongside contact sheets and outtake images from their original photo shoots to add social context and new historical perspective to the images.
Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm’s Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land
Leah Penniman, Chelsea Green, out now
A black activist and a farmer, Penniman outlines her focus on fighting racism in the food system in a comprehensive DIY manual about every aspect of small-scale farming, aimed at African-heritage people.
The Last Pass: Cousy, Russell, the Celtics, and What Matters at the End
Gary M. Pomerantz, Penguin Press, out now
A moving account of the relationship between HOF giants Bob Cousy and Bill Russell, the engine of the famed 1960s Boston Celtics championship teams, featuring an apology to Russell by Cousy, who acknowledges his lackluster support when Russell was experiencing vicious racist harassment in the 1960s.
Not Just Black and White: A White Mother’s Story of Raising a Black Son in Multiracial America
Anni K. Reinking, Front Edge, Jan. 2019
Reinking, an academic researcher and mother of a biracial son, recounts her experiences as the white mother of a black child who is striving to understand and prepare him for the world of racial bias and discrimination he will have to navigate.
On Intersectionality: Essential Writing
Kimberlé Crenshaw, New Press, Mar. 2019
A selection of accessible essays on the concept of intersectionality—the importance of multiple social forces such as race, gender, and sexual identity in understanding discrimination and social power—by the scholar who developed the term.
Survival Math: Notes on an All-American Family
Mitchell Jackson, Scribner, Mar. 2019
A dazzling nonfiction work that combines the dismal racial history of Portland with the Jackson family’s journey from Alabama to Oregon in a lyric social memoir that surveys a personal and a municipal legacy of gangs, guns, sex work, masculinity, near-death moments, and “the concept of the Hustle.”
Tina Turner: My Love Story
Tina Turner, 37Ink, out now
Turner takes us from her early years, to the beginnings of her brilliant singing career with Ike Turner, to the R&B and soul superstar she became in the 1980s.
Poetry
Monument: Poems New & Selected
Natasha Trethewey, HMH, out now
This collection of poems from the former poet laureate’s previous books, along with 11 new poems, is presented as a monument to the struggles and resistance of women and people of color.
The Sweet Flypaper of Life
Roy DeCarava and Langston Hughes, First Print, out now
First published in 1955, this legendary photo-essay and verse collaboration between photographer DeCarava and poet Hughes, lyrically surveys 1950s Harlem in a new and restored hardcover edition after being out of print for 30 years.
Taking The Arrow Out of The Heart: Poems
Alice Walker, 37Ink, out now
The National Book Award–winning novelist offers a collection of 70 poems focused on our troubled era.
Graphic Novels
Hot Comb
Ebony Flowers, Drawn & Quarterly, May 2019
Flowers, winner of a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award, offers a series of poignant and insightful stories in a graphic novel that explores the lives of black women, the cultural complexities around their hair, and issues of race and class.
Showtime at the Apollo: The Epic Tale of Harlem’s Legendary Theater
Ted Fox and James Otis Smith, Abrams, Jan. 2019
Based on Fox’s 1983 prose work, as well as marking the 85th anniversary of the black entertainment showcase, this graphic nonfiction work recaps the Apollo’s history through the words and stories of stars such as Billie Holiday and James Browns.
Monk! Thelonius, Pannonica, and the Friendship Behind a Musical Revolution
Youssef Daoudi, First Second, out now
Daoudi’s vibrantly illustrated graphic biography of the
legendary jazz pianist probes the nature of his unconventional friendship with Kathleen Annie Pannonica de Koenigswarter, a Rothschild heiress and legendary jazz patron.
Children’s/Young Adult
Grand Theft Horse
G. Neri, illus. by Corban Wilkin, Lee & Low, out now
This graphic novel tells the true story of the author’s cousin, who stole a racehorse to protect the animal from unscrupulous and inhumane practices and ended up in a fight against the horse racing industry.
We Rise, We Resist, We Raise Our Voices
Edited by Wade Hudson and Cheryl Willis Hudson, Crown and Just Us, out now
Just Us Books partners with Crown to publish this anthology of 52 noted children’s authors and illustrators—among them Jason Reynolds, Kwame Alexander, and Jacqueline Woodson—who attempt to answer to the question, “What do we tell our children about the challenges we face?”
