Every year brings us a plethora of new and exciting books to add to our library. If you’re one of the many who have “read more books” written down as a 2021 New Year’s resolution, here are 21 books by Black authors being released this year!
The Prophets by Robert Jones Jr. (Adult Historical Fiction)
Out January 5
“A singular and stunning debut novel about the forbidden union between two enslaved young men on a Deep South plantation, the refuge they find in each other, and a betrayal that threatens their existence.“
![Open Water by [Caleb Azumah Nelson]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41glprPnBAL.jpg)
Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson (Fiction, Romance)
Out April 13
“Two young people meet at a pub in South East London. Both are Black British, both won scholarships to private schools where they struggled to belong, both are now artists – he a photographer, she a dancer – trying to make their mark in a city that by turns celebrates and rejects them. Tentatively, tenderly, they fall in love. But two people who seem destined to be together can still be torn apart by fear and violence.”
Life After Death by Sister Souljah (Fiction)
Out March 2
“Twenty years ago, Sister Souljah’s debut novel, The Coldest Winter Ever, became a bestselling cultural phenomenon. Fans fell in love with the unforgettable Winter Santiaga, daughter of a prominent Brooklyn drug-dealing family, who captivated her lovers, friends, and enemies with her sexy street smarts. For two decades, fans have begged for answers about what happened to Winter. Now all is revealed in Sister Souljah’s page-turning sequel, filled with her trademark passion, danger, temptation, and adventure. With her jail sentence coming to a close, Winter is ready to step back into the spotlight and reclaim her throne.“
![Black Girl Finance by [Selina Flavius]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41SmHQk2cnL.jpg)
Black Girl Finance by Selina Flavius
Out January 21
“We don’t like thinking about money, do we? We think maths, we think spreadsheets, we think boring. But Selina Flavius, founder of Black Girl Finance, wants to show that there can be another, better way. A way to start making our hard-earned money work even harder for us.“
Black Buck by Mateo Askaripour
Out January 5
“Black Buck is a hilarious, razor-sharp skewering of America’s workforce; it is a propulsive, crackling debut that explores ambition and race, and makes way for a necessary new vision of the American dream.”
Milk Blood Heat by Dantiel W. Moniz
Out February 2
“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 story delves into the ordinary worlds of young girls, women, and men who find themselves confronted by extraordinary moments of violent personal reckoning. These intimate portraits of people and relationships scour and soothe and blast a light on the nature of family, faith, forgiveness, consumption, and what we may, or may not, owe one another.”
The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris
Out June 1
“Twenty-six-year-old editorial assistant Nella Rogers is tired of being the only Black employee at Wagner Books. Fed up with the isolation and microaggressions, she’s thrilled when Harlem-born and bred Hazel starts working in the cubicle beside hers. They’ve only just started comparing natural hair care regimens, though, when a string of uncomfortable events elevates Hazel to Office Darling, and Nella is left in the dust.”
When You Look Like Us by Pamela N. Harris
Out January 5
“When you look like us—brown skin, brown eyes, black braids or fades—everyone else thinks you’re trouble. No one even blinks twice over a missing black girl from public housing because she must’ve brought whatever happened to her upon herself. I, Jay Murphy, can admit that, for a minute, I thought my sister Nicole just got caught up with her boyfriend—a drug dealer—and his friends. But she’s been gone too long. Nic, where are you?“
Raceless: In Search of Family, Identity, and the Truth About Where I Belong by Georgina Lawton
Out February 23
“From The Guardian’s Georgina Lawton, a moving examination of how racial identity is constructed—through the author’s own journey grappling with secrets and stereotypes, having been raised by white parents with no explanation as to why she looked black.“
How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House: A Novel
Out February 2
“In Baxter’s Beach, Barbados, Lala’s grandmother Wilma tells the story of the one-armed sister. It’s a cautionary tale, about what happens to girls who disobey their mothers and go into the Baxter’s Tunnels. When she’s grown, Lala lives on the beach with her husband, Adan, a petty criminal with endless charisma whose thwarted burglary of one of the beach mansions sets off a chain of events with terrible consequences. A gunshot no one was meant to witness. A new mother whose baby is found lifeless on the beach. A woman torn between two worlds and incapacitated by grief. And two men driven into the Tunnels by desperation and greed who attempt a crime that will risk their freedom – and their lives.“
![Who's Loving You: Love Stories by Women of Colour by [Sareeta Domingo]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51N-WxMpx3L.jpg)
Who’s Living You: Love Stories by Women of Colour by Sareeta Domingo
Out March 4
“Forbidden love. Lost love. Unrequited love. Love so powerful that it can transcend countries, continents and even the boundaries of time. In this extraordinary collection, authored by some of the best storytellers working in the UK today, writers reflect on love and desire in all its many forms.“
The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois: A Novel by Honoree Fanonne Jeffers
Out July 27
“The award-winning poet and essayist makes her fiction debut with this magisterial epic—an intimate yet sweeping novel with the freshness and forcefulness of Homegoing, The Turner House, and The Water Dancer —that chronicles the journey of one American family from the centuries of the colonial slave trade through the Civil War to our own tumultuous time.“
The Rib King: A Novel by Ladee Hubbard
Out January 19
“The acclaimed author of The Talented Ribkins deconstructs painful African American stereotypes and offers a fresh and searing critique on race, class, privilege, ambition, exploitation, and the seeds of rage in America in this intricately woven and masterfully executed historical novel, set in early the twentieth century that centers around the black servants of a down-on-its heels upper-class white family.“
100 Boyfriends by Brontez Purnell
Out February 2
“Transgressive, foulmouthed, and devastatingly funny, Brontez Purnell’s 100 Boyfriends is a revelatory spiral into the imperfect lives of queer men desperately fighting―and often losing―the urge to self-sabotage. His characters solicit sex on their lunch breaks, expose themselves to racist neighbors, sleep with their coworker’s husbands, rub Preparation H on their hungover eyes, and, in an uproarious epilogue, take a punk band on a disastrous tour of Europe. They also travel to claim inheritances, push past personal trauma, and cultivate community while living on the margins of a white supremacist, heteronormative society.“
Caul Baby: A Novel by Morgan Jerkins
Out April 6
“New York Times bestselling author Morgan Jerkins makes her fiction debut with this electrifying novel, for fans of Ta-Nehisi Coates and Jacqueline Woodson, that brings to life one powerful and enigmatic family in a tale rife with secrets, betrayal, intrigue, and magic.”
Harlem Shuffle: A Novel by Colson Whitehead
Out September 14
“From two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author Colson Whitehead, a gloriously entertaining novel of heists, shakedowns, and rip-offs set in Harlem in the 1960s.“
This Close to Okay: A Novel by Leesa Cross-Smith
Out February 2
“A powerful, vibrant novel about the life-changing weekend shared between two strangers, from the award-winning writer Roxane Gay calls ‘a consummate storyteller.'”
The Final Revival of Opal & Nev by Dawnie Walton
Out April 20
“A kaleidoscopic fictional oral history of the beloved rock ’n’ roll duo who shot to fame in 1970s New York, and the dark, fraught secret that lies at the peak of their stardom.”
While Justice Sleeps by Stacey Abrams
Out May 11
“From celebrated national leader and bestselling author Stacey Abrams, While Justice Sleeps is a gripping, complexly plotted thriller set within the halls of the U.S. Supreme Court.”
We Are Not Like Them by Chrstine Pride and Jo Piazza
Out September 15
“Told from alternating perspectives, an evocative and riveting story about the lifelong bond between two women, one black and one white, whose friendship is indelibly altered by a tragic event—a powerful and poignant exploration of race in America today and its devastating impact on ordinary lives.”
When Stars Rain Down by Angela Jackson-Brown
Out April 13
“In When Stars Rain Down, Angela Jackson-Brown introduces us to a small Southern town grappling with haunting questions still relevant today—and to a young woman whose search for meaning resonates across the ages.“
