It tells of a contemporary African-American woman who travels back in time to save an ancestor who happens to be a white slave owner. The 2001 Griot Edition describes it succinctly: “Passing’ is not only a direct reference to Clare’s decision to live as a white woman but also the suppression of her sexuality. “Both genuinely suspenseful mystery fiction and an ingenious pastiche of the genre, the only novel co-written by two towering figures of Latin American literature.”, The Street by Ann Petry (1946). Creativity ultimately becomes the greatest source of satisfaction for her. Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo is the story of three sisters and their mother from Charleston, South Carolina, all of whom are striving to live their creative dreams. After repeated rejections, Harriet decided to publish the book herself, an impressive feat for any woman of that era, let alone one that had spent years as a fugitive slave. “A timeless story of first love. “The poignant, often heartbreaking story of Lutie Johnson, a young black woman, and her spirited struggle to raise her son amid the violence, poverty, and racial dissonance of Harlem in the late 1940s.”, The President by Miguel Ángel Asturias (1946). After repeated rejections, Harriet decided to publish the book herself, an impressive feat for any woman of that era, let alone one that had spent years as a fugitive slave. “Possibly the most important work in Hawai’ian literature, Hawai’i’s Story is a poignant plea from Hawai’i’s queen to restore her people’s kingdom.”, Contending Forces: A Romance Illustrative of Negro Life North and South by Pauline Hopkins (1900). “A story of a ruthless dictator and his schemes to dispose of a political adversary in an unnamed Latin American country usually identified as Guatemala.”, The Living Is Easy by Dorothy West (1948). “Sabato’s first novel is framed as the confession of the painter Juan Pablo Castel, who has murdered the only woman capable of understanding him.”, No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai (1948). “Recounts the exploits of 15 teenage reformatory boys evacuated in wartime to a remote mountain village where they are feared and detested by the local peasants.”, The Guide by R. K. Narayan (1958). This list of Black children’s books by Black authors are ones which you may want to get for the kiddos in your life. Wells (1930s). That’s why this site limits its scope to women who have passed on, and those are the authors you’ll find in this list. “The novel depicts the hard struggle of life in a modern city and its demoralization. “Set among a community of cadets in a Lima military school, it is notable for its experimental and complex employment of multiple perspectives.”, Black Rain by Masuji Ibuse (1966). “In 1947-48 the workers on the Dakar-Niger railway came out on strike. Lu Xun’s stories both indict outdated Chinese traditions and embrace China’s cultural richness and individuality.”, Selected Poems of Gabriela Mistral by Gabriela Mistral (1922). I’ve also avoided giving authors more than one slot on this list. “Poems by the late Chilean poet who, in 1945, became the first Latin American author to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.”, Cane by Jean Toomer (1923). -- The Guardian. “As he journeys from the Deep South to the streets and basements of Harlem, from a horrifying ‘battle royal’ where black men are reduced to fighting animals, to a Communist rally where they are elevated to the status of trophies, Ralph Ellison’s nameless protagonist ushers readers into a parallel universe that throws our own into harsh and even hilarious relief.”, Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin (1953). “The story of a young woman who was caught in the radioactive ‘black rain’ that fell after the bombing of Hiroshima.”, Houseboy by Ferdinand Oyono (1966). The story of Vyry, a mixed-race slave, is based on the real-life experiences of Walker’s great-grandmother. “Tells the story of the rise and fall, birth and death of a mythical town of Macondo through the history of the Buendia family.”, Thousand Cranes by Yasunari Kawabata (1967). Here’s more about Jubilee by Margaret Walker.

“One of only a handful of novels published by black women during the forties, the story of ambitious Cleo Judson is a long-time cult classic.”, The Tunnel by Ernesto Sabato (1948).

At first Kikuji is appalled by her indelicate nature, but it is not long before he succumbs to passion.”.

“Six colourful, comic characters inhabit A Backward Place. “Hansberry’s award-winning drama about the hopes and aspirations of a struggling, working-class family living on the South Side of Chicago connected profoundly with the psyche of black America—and changed American theater forever.”, Down Second Avenue by Es’kia Mphahlele (1959). “From the man known as the father of the Harlem Renaissance comes a powerful, provocative, and affecting anthology of writers who shaped the Harlem Renaissance movement and who help us to consider the evolution of the African American in society.”, Chaka by Thomas Mofolo (1925). 413,283 views made by moviebb. We're giving away a $250 gift card to Barnes and Noble! I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou (1928–2014) is a 1969 autobiography by the beloved writer and poet covering her upbringing and youth.

From wise artists like Maya Angelou to new voices like Marlon James and Kiley Reid, and leaders like the Obamas, we've gathered some of the all time best books by Black authors to add to your reading list. “The first slave narrative to attract a significant readership reveals many aspects of the eighteenth-century Western world through the experiences of one individual.”, The Golden Days (The Story of the Stone, part 1) by Cao Xueqin (1791). “A Japanese American woman tells how it was to grow up on Seattle’s waterfront in the 1930s and to be subjected to ‘relocation’ during World War II.”, The Palm-Wine Drinkard by Amos Tutuola (1952). “This beloved coming-of-age story set in Brooklyn during the Depression and World War II follows the life of Selina Boyce, a daughter of Barbadians immigrants.”, A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry (1959). Some of these classics by people of color are well-known and others are known only to scholars of the period they’re from. “Tells the true story of Vyry, the child of a white plantation owner and his black mistress. But the literary canon tends to be dominated by white men. Here’s more about Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. “Larsen’s powerful first novel has intriguing autobiographical parallels and at the same time invokes the international dimension of African American culture of the 1920s.”, Some Prefer Nettles by Jun’ichirō Tanizaki (1928). “The most famous collection of Garvey’s speeches and essays.”, The New Negro edited by Alain Locke (1925).

The New York Times wrote that “Shange’s rich and wondrous story of womanhood, art, and passionately-lived lives is written with such exquisite care and beauty that anybody can relate to her message.”.

Du Bois 40. “Tells the story of John Buddy Pearson, ‘a living exultation’ of a young man who loves too many women for his own good.”, Native Son by Richard Wright (1940).


Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself, an autobiography that reads like a novel, was published in 1861. CULTURE “Rebelling against the constraints of family and society, a young Egyptian woman decides to study medicine, becoming the only woman in a class of men.”, Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (1958). “The first novel ever published by a black American woman, it is set in antebellum Louisiana and Connecticut, and focuses on the lives of a beautiful mixed-race mother and daughter.”, Behind the Scenes: Or, Thirty Years a Slave and Four Years in the White House by Elizabeth Keckley (1868).

“This long-unavailable classic tells the tale of young Samba Diallo, a devout pupil in a Koranic school in Senegal whose parents send him to Paris to study philosophy.”, A House for Mr Biswas by V.S. For the purposes of this list, I’ve defined a classic as a book that’s at least 50 years old.

At first, the book didn’t sell well at first and received mixed reviews. “This novel is really two stories: on the one hand, the successful medical career of Hanaoka Seishu, the first doctor in the world to perform surgery for breast cancer under a general anesthetic; on the other hand, the lives of his wife and his mother, who supported him with stoic resignation, even to the extent of finally volunteering to be used as guinea pigs in his experiments.”, Jubilee by Margaret Walker (1966). More about The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. “A fast-paced and harrowing tale of slavery and freedom, of the hypocrisies of a nation founded on democratic principles, Clotel is more than a sensationalist novel.”, Biography of an American Bondman, By His Daughter by Josephine Brown (1855).

Read some of the best fiction and nonfiction by contemporary Black authors, including books in every genre from literary fiction to personal memoirs. Her first novel, ... and lots more (look for a bonus in your welcome letter! And what better way to support Black literature than by purchasing the books recommended below from one of these Black-owned bookstores that ship across the U.S. “Moving elegantly across a wide range of themes including nature, society, and her own flirtations, Sei Shōnagon provides a witty and intimate window on a woman’s life at court in classical Japan.”, The Diary of Lady Murasaki by Murasaki Shikibu (1008-1010). These books by famous black authors each capture and celebrate the black experience. … As an integral part of Washington, D.C.’s, thriving turn-of-the-century literary scene, Johnson hosted regular meetings with Harlem Renaissance writers and other artists, including Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes, May Miller, and Jean Toomer, and was herself considered among the finest writers of the time.”, American Indian Stories by Zitkala-Sa (1921). “A landmark book that describes Mphahlele’s experience growing up in segregated South Africa. “It is a tale of sexual passion and disorientation that explores modern Japan’s conflict between the values of Western culture and Occidental tradition.”, Home to Harlem by Claude McKay (1928). The book starts with her as a three-year-old being sent to Stamos, Arkansas, to live with their grandmother along with her older brother.

“Tells the story of a young man’s passage through a sequence of disturbing experiences to a hard-worn truce with the destructive forces within himself.”, The Real Story of Ah-Q and Other Tales of China by Lu Xun (1921). “Tells the story of a young black man caught in a downward spiral after he kills a young white woman in a brief moment of panic.”, Love in a Fallen City by Eileen Chang (1943). “Written when Chang was still in her twenties, these extraordinary stories combine an unsettled, probing, utterly contemporary sensibility, keenly alert to sexual politics and psychological ambiguity, with an intense lyricism that echoes the classics of Chinese literature.”, Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges (1944).

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