Fiction

Why would Grace Johnson, an African American high school senior, take a bullet to save the life of a Ku Klux Klansman named Jonathan Gilmore? The question hovers unanswered over Grace's hometown of Vigilant, Michigan. Few people, black or white,...

When many think of comic books the first thing that comes to mind are caped crusaders and spandex-wearing super-heroes. Perhaps, inevitably, these images are of white men (and more rarely, women). It was not until the 1970s that African American...

Winner of the 2016 Fauset Book Award in the Category of First FictionSet in Arkansas in 1957, the complexities of identity, yearnings for love and acceptance, and racial tension are all unmasked in the riveting literary drama, Melting the Blues, by debut...

It's been four years since twenty-eight-year old Alicia Black, daughter of Reverend Curtis Black, divorced her second husband, the most womanizing and corrupt man she has ever known. Since then, Alicia has been dating her first husband, Phillip Sullivan,...

A haunting novel about national identity, race, liberty, loss, dislocation, and surrender, Cole's "Open City" seethes with intelligence. Written in a clear, rhythmic voice that lingers, this is a mature, profound work by an important new author who has...

A stunning debut novel of two girls raised in hardship, separated by fortune, and reunited through tragedy. Fourteen-year-old Audrey Martin, with her Poindexter glasses and her head humming the 3/4 meter of gospel music, knows she ll never get out of...

Wench by Dolen Perkins-Valdez is startling and original fiction that raises provocative questions of power and freedom, love and dependence. An enchanting and unforgettable novel based on little-known fact, Wench combines the narrative allure of Cane...

Set in the first few months following the Confederate surrender and the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, Sam--a runaway slave who once worked for the Union Army--decides to leave his safe haven in Philadelphia and set out on foot to return to the...

A fiery, inventive, and beautifully crafted novel in the literary tradition of Alice Walker and Toni Morrison.Number 7 on HEY, SMALL PRESS's Best Of 2011 list (heysmallpress.org)! "From the malignant forces of racism and sexism to corruption and...

A provocative novel that upends the history of the transatlantic slave trade,"Blond Roots" reverses and reexamines notions of savagery and civilization asit follows a young woman's journey to freedom.The most provocative debut novel of the year, a...

Angel, Jaz, Tasha, and Kyra are four girlfriends pulling themselves out of the ghetto--and trying to bring their hearts up to higher ground with them. But when an unwanted guest crashes Angel's wedding, all the rage and bloodlust from the Uhood comes...

When Pamala Bordelon was researching a work on the Florida Federal Writers Project, she discovered writings in the collection that were unmistakably from the hand of Zora Neale Hurston, one of the leading writers of the Harlem Renaissance. Over half of...