African American Authors
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Featured
Author--In Memory:
BeBe
Moore Campbell
(1950-2006)
BeBe Moore Campbell passed away November 27th, 2006. We are devoting a special
Featured Author section in her memory.
BeBe Moore Campbell was the author of three New York Times bestsellers,
Brothers and Sisters, Singing in the Comeback Choir, and
What You Owe Me. Her other works included the novel, Your Blues
Ain't Like Mine, her memoir, Sweet Summer, Growing Up With
and Without My Dad, and her first nonfiction book, Successful Women,
Angry Men: Backlash in the Two-Career Marriage. You can view her website,
view a website about her and her
works, or search our Catalog
for her books. You can also read more about life from Voices
from the Gap and you can read an interview
with her from Bookreporter.com
Contemporary Fiction
Rochelle Alers, a native New Yorker lives on Long Island and writes full-time. As the author of more than 25 nationally acclaimed African-American romance titles, including Vows, Hidden Agenda, Rosie’s Curl and Weave, Summer Magic, Welcome To Leo’s, and the Hideaway series, Rochelle Alers is one of the genre’s best-selling writers. View her website, view a website about her, or search our Catalog for her books. |
| Berry followed Redemption Song, with another bestseller, The Haunting of Hip Hop and took her readers on a journey to the other side. In August 2002, she released her most passionate work ever with Jim & Louella Homemade Heart-fix Remedy, a tantalizing yet spiritual tale that is sure to open more than your eyes. View her website and full biography or search our Catalog for her books. |
"This second attempt [at writing] resulted in Sisters and Lovers, and to my amazement it eventually sold more than 100,000 hardcover and about a half million paperback copies. My second novel, Big Girls Don't Cry, hit many of the bestseller lists as well, including the New York Times. A Long Way From Home, the story of my ancestors, was nominated for an NAACP Image Award." View her website, view a website about her and her works, or search our Catalog for her books. |
Barbara Chase-Riboud is a Carl Sandberg Prize–winning poet and the prizewinning author of four acclaimed, widely translated historical novels, the bestselling Sally Hemings, Valide: A Novel of a Harem, Echo of Lions (about the Amistad mutiny), and The President’s Daughter, a prequel to Sally Hemings. She divides her time between Paris, Rome, and the United States. View her Publisher's website or search our Catalog for her books. |
Born in Haiti in 1969, Danticat, like the protagonist of her novel Breath, Eyes, Memory, at the age of twelve left her birthplace for New York to reunite with her parents. She earned a degree in French Literature from Barnard College, where she won the 1995 Woman of Achievement Award, and later an MFA from Brown University. View a website about her or search our Catalog for her books. |
Eric Jerome Dickey, originally from Memphis, Tennessee, is the national best-selling author of Naughty or Nice, The Other Woman, Thieves' Paradise, Between Lovers, Liar's Game, Cheaters, Milk in My Coffee, Friends and Lovers, and Sister Sister. He worked as a computer programmer, a middle school teacher, actor, and stand up comic before becoming a full-time novelist. View his website, a website about him or search our Catalog for his books. |
Ms. Diggs is the author of: Staying Married: A Guide For African Americans (Kensington Books, August 1998) which Essence Magazine called "One of the best books of the past 20 years"), Talking Drums: An African American Quote Collection, The African American Resource Guide, and Success At Work: A Guide for African Americans. View her website, a website about her and her works, or search our Catalog for her books. |
Writing Passing by Samaria, her bestselling first novel, she discovered that writing was the deep desire of her heart. In January 2002 she finally surrendered her Defense Department career to write, speak, and sing full time. Her latest thought-provoking novels continue the stories of the characters from Ain't No River, Ain't No Mountain and the much anticipated Ain't No Valley. View her website,a website about her and her works, or search our Catalog for her books. |
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Gaines published his first short story in 1956. Since then he has written eight books of fiction, including Catherine Carmier, Of Love and Dust, Bloodline, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, A Long Day in November, In My Father's House, and A Gathering of Old Men. A Lesson Before Dying, his most recent novel, won the 1993 National Book Critics Circle Award. View a website about him, view his full biography, or search our Catalog for his works. |
E. Lynn Harris quit his sales job to write his first novel, Invisible Life, and, failing to find a publisher, he published it himself in 1991 and sold it mostly at black-owned bookstores, beauty salons, and book clubs before he was "discovered" by Anchor Books. Anchor published Invisible Life as a trade paperback in 1994, and thus his career as an author was "officially" launched. View his website, view his full biography or search our Catalog for his books. |
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Donna began her career in 1997 with short stories. Her first novel was published in 1990. Since that time she has 25 novels and 16 novellas in print. Three of her novels have been adapted for television. She has edited two award-winning anthologies and works as a editorial consultant. View her full biography, view a website about her, or search our Catalog for her books. |
Travis Hunter is an author, songwriter and father. The Hearts of Men was self-published in 2000 by Hunter's own company, Jimrose Publishing House. During the 2000 Book Expo America in Chicago, Hunter was signed by Random House's imprint, Villard Books for the re-release of The Hearts of Men, Married but Still Looking and his current release Trouble Man. View the author's website, his full biography, a website about him, or search our Catalog for his books. |
Kristin Hunter Lattany is the author of Kinfolks, Guests in the Promised Land, which was nominated for a National Book Award, The Landlord, which became a motion picture, and a bestselling young adult novel, The Soul Brothers & Sister Lou. She received the Moonstone Black Writing Celebration Lifetime Achievement Award. She lives in New Jersey. View her publisher's website or search our Catalog for her books. |
Gloria Mallette worked part-time at Medgar Evers College, part of the City University of New York, in Brooklyn, N.Y. from 1989 to 1996 while she wrote fiction in her spare time. Recently, she gave up working as a health-study interviewer at SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. to devote herself full-time to writing. View a website about her and her works, or search our Catalog for her books. |
| Benilde Little is the author of the bestselling novel Good Hair, which examined class distinctions among African-Americans through a love relationship between a third-generation Harvard educated surgeon and the book's protagonist, Alice Andrews, a newspaper reporter and the daughter of working-class parents. James McBride, author of The Color of Water, called it "an important book to read for anyone who has ever been in love…a superb debut." View her website, her full biography, or search our Catalog for her books. |
Bernice L. McFadden's beloved debut Sugar was hailed by critics across the country who praised her graceful voice and reveled at her talent for telling a complex story with insight and clarity. The New York Times called Sugar, "Vivid." The Dallas Morning News reported co-owner of Black Images Book Bazaar, Emma Rodgers, as saying, "She's a layered writer, on the caliber of Toni Morrison. Very rich, very woven." View her website, her full biography, a website about her, or search our Catalog for her books. |
Diane grew up in Philadelphia, the city she returns to as the setting for Leaving Cecil Street. Her work has appeared in Philadelphia Magazine; Essence; the Sunday Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine; and the anthologies Bluelight Corner and Mending the World. She presently teaches fiction writing at her alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania. View her website, her full biography, her publisher's website, or search our Catalog for her books. |
| Since their debut in 1999 with the hilarious What
Brothers Think, What Sistahs Know three-book series, the husband-and-wife
team of Denene Millner and Nick Chiles have established themselves as
the funny, insightful voice of young African-American singles and couples
who are trying to find their way to successful loving relationships
in an era that seems to devour relationships at an alarming rate. View their website, their full biography, or search for books by Denene Millner and Nick Chiles. |
Walter Mosley is the author of nineteen critically acclaimed books and his work has been translated into twenty-one languages. His popular mysteries featuring Easy Rawlins began with Devil in a Blue Dress in 1990. Others in the series include A Red Death, White Butterfly, Black Betty and A Little Yellow Dog (both of which were New York Times bestsellers). Last year, Easy Rawlins returned with Bad Boy Brawly Brown and Six Easy Pieces. View his website, his full biography, a website about him, or search our Catalog for his works. |
Tracy Price-Thompson, a former Army 88N (Transportation) and 21B (Engineer Corp), is also a highly decorated Desert Storm veteran whose successful self-published novel, Black Coffee, was purchased as part of an unprecedented three-book deal by Random House imprint Villard/Strivers Row. View a website about her, search our Catalog for her books (Warning: her website contains Explicit Material) |
Clover and Ms. Sanders' second novel, Her Own Place, offer the experience of growing up in the rural South. Dori Sanders' Country Cooking offers the taste of growing up in the rural South detailing the family recipes and stories told at the peach stand. The eighth of 10 children, Ms. Sanders grew up on her family's peach farm in Filbert. Working on the farm has had a lasting impact on the writer. Writing is her way of passing down family history to the next generation. View her website and full biography or search our Catalog for her books. |
New York Times Best-selling Author, Kimberla Lawson Roby, has currently written eight novels. She has completed seven national book tours and is currently speaking at expos, luncheons, writers’ conferences, libraries, colleges, universities and other literary events throughout the country on request. Her novels have frequented numerous bestseller lists, including The New York Times and those in Essence Magazine, Upscale Magazine, Emerge Magazine, Barnes and Noble, and Amazon.com, among others. View her website, website about her and her works, or search our Catalog for her books. |
Camika Spencer has become a nationally recognized best-selling author that isn't formal in the formal sense of literary story telling. Spencer is working on her fourth novel. View a website about her with full bio, or search our Catalog for her books. |
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Omar Tyree is an author, publisher, lecturer and performance poet who completed his undergraduate studies at Howard University in Washington, D.C, with honors in print journalism. He was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he graduated from the city's most prestigious Central High School in 1987. View his website, a website about his works, or search our Catalog for his books. |
Alice Walker received the Pulitzer Prize in 1983 for The Color Purple. Among her numerous awards and honors are the Lillian Smith Award from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rosenthal Award from the National Institute of Arts & Letters, a nomination for the National Book Award, a Radcliffe Institute Fellowship, a Merrill Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the Front Page Award for Best Magazine Criticism from the Newswoman's Club of New York. View a website about her life and works, a website about her books, or search our Catalog for her books. |
Valerie
Wilson Wesley
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Valerie Wilson Wesley’s latest mystery is Dying in the Dark. She is also the author of the novels Always True to You in My Fashion and Ain’t Nobody’s Business If I Do for which she received the 2000 award for excellence in adult fiction from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association (BCALA) and six other Tamara Hayle Mysteries. View her website, her biography, or search our Catalog for her books. |
Mysteries
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Eleanor Taylor Bland, of Waukegan, Illinois is best known as the award winning author of the Marti MacAlister series. In this series, African American heroine Marti MacAlister (a widow) and her partner Matthew "Vik" Jessenovik solve murder cases throughout the Chicagoland area. View a website with biographical information about her, view a website about her works, or search our Catalog for her books. |
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Grace F. Edwards was born and raised in Harlem and now lives in Brooklyn. Do or Die is the fourth novel in the Harlem-based mystery series featuring former cop Mali Anderson. The first book, If I Should Die, was released in 1997. The second book, A Toast Before Dying, won the 1999 Fiction Honor Book award from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. No Time to Die, the third novel, was released in 1999. Visit her website and view her full biography, read an interview about her, or search our Catalog for her books. |
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Walter Mosley is the author of nineteen critically acclaimed books. His popular mysteries featuring Easy Rawlins began with Devil in a Blue Dress in 1990. Others in the series include A Red Death, White Butterfly, Black Betty and A Little Yellow Dog (both of which were New York Times bestsellers). Last year, Easy Rawlins returned with Bad Boy Brawly Brown and Six Easy Pieces. View his website, his full biography, a website about him, or search our Catalog for his works. |
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Valerie Wilson Wesley’s latest mystery is Dying in the Dark. She is also the author of the novels Always True to You in My Fashion and Ain’t Nobody’s Business If I Do for which she received the 2000 award for excellence in adult fiction from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association (BCALA) and six other Tamara Hayle Mysteries. View her website, her biography, or search our Catalog for her books. |
Non-Fiction
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Ms. Diggs is the author of: Staying Married: A Guide For African Americans (Kensington Books, August 1998) which Essence Magazine called "One of the best books of the past 20 years"), Talking Drums: An African American Quote Collection, The African American Resource Guide, and Success At Work: A Guide for African Americans. View a website about her or search our Catalog for her books. |
Ralph
Ellison
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The American writer Ralph Waldo Ellison, b. Oklahoma City, Okla., Mar. 1, 1914, achieved international fame with his first novel, Invisible Man (1952). He was influenced early by the myth of the frontier, viewing the United States as a land of "infinite possibilities." View a website containing his biography and works, view the American Masters series on him developed by PBS, or search our Catalog for his books. |
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Walter Mosley is the author of nineteen critically acclaimed books. His popular mysteries featuring Easy Rawlins began with Devil in a Blue Dress in 1990. Others in the series include A Red Death, White Butterfly, Black Betty and A Little Yellow Dog (both of which were New York Times bestsellers). Last year, Easy Rawlins returned with Bad Boy Brawly Brown and Six Easy Pieces. View his website, his full biography, a website about him, or search our Catalog for his works. |
Poetry
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Maya Angelou is hailed as one of the great voices of contemporary literature and as a remarkable Renaissance woman. Being a poet, educator, historian, best-selling author, actress, playwright, civil-rights activist, producer and director, Dr. Angelou continues to travel the world making appearances, spreading her legendary wisdom. View her website and full biography, see a website about her and works, or search our Catalog for her books. |
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One of the major modern poets and the first African American writer to win a Pulitzer Prize, Gwendolyn Brooks has worked at her craft for well over fifty years. Her thematic focus has remained much the same—the lives of ordinary African Americans and their struggle against the devastating effects of poverty and racism. View a Gale website with her full biography, see a website devoted her career, view a website about her life and works, or search our Catalog for her books. |
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Poet Nikki Giovanni was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, on June 7, 1943. Although she grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, she and her sister returned to Knoxville each summer to visit their grandparents. Nikki graduated with honors in history from her grandfather's alma mater, Fisk University. Since 1987, she has been on the faculty at Virginia Tech, where she is a University Distinguished Professor. NAACP Image Award winner for Literature in 1998, 2000, and 2003. View her website and full biography, a website about her and her works, or search our Catalog for her books. |
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Alice Walker received the Pulitzer Prize in 1983 for The Color Purple. Among her numerous awards and honors are the Lillian Smith Award from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rosenthal Award from the National Institute of Arts & Letters, a nomination for the National Book Award, a Radcliffe Institute Fellowship, a Merrill Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the Front Page Award for Best Magazine Criticism from the Newswoman's Club of New York. View a website about her life and works, a website about her books, or search our Catalog for her books. |
Science Fiction,
Fantasy, and Horror
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L.A. Banks, the author of The Vampire Huntress Legends series, has written over 17 novels and contributed to 7 novellas, thus far, in multiple genres under various pseudonyms. A graduate of The University of Pennsylvania Wharton undergraduate program with a Master’s in Fine Arts from Temple University, one never knows how or when this enigma will appear. View her website, her full biography, a website about her and her works, or search our Catalog for her books. |
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Octavia Butler has had eleven novels published: Patternmaster, Mind of my Mind, Survivor, Kindred, Wild Seed, Clay's Ark, Dawn, Adulthood Rites, Imago, Parable of the Sower, and Parable of the Talents as well as a collection of shorter work, entitled Bloodchild. View her publisher's website and biography, a website about her, or search our Catalog for her books. |
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Sheree R. Thomas is a writer, editor, small publisher, educator, visual artist, and mother whose work has appeared in numerous publications and literary journals. A native of Memphis and the mother of two daughters, Thomas teaches creative writing and short fiction at the Frederick Douglass Creative Arts Center in Manhattan. View a website devoted to her life and her work, or search our Catalog for her books. |
Literary
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As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote, "history cannot ignore W.E.B. DuBois because history has to reflect truth and Dr. DuBois was a tireless explorer and a gifted discoverer of social truths. His singular greatness lay in his quest for truth about his own people. There were very few scholars who concerned themselves with honest study of the black man and he sought to fill this immense void. The degree to which he succeeded disclosed the great dimensions of the man." View his full biography, a website devoted to his legacy, a website about his life and works, or search our Catalog for his books. |
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The American writer Ralph Waldo Ellison, b. Oklahoma City, Okla., Mar. 1, 1914, achieved international fame with his first novel, Invisible Man (1952). He was influenced early by the myth of the frontier, viewing the United States as a land of "infinite possibilities." View a website containing his biography and works, view the American Masters series on him developed by PBS, or search our Catalog for his books. |
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Born in 1902 in Joplin, Missouri, Langston Hughes grew up mainly in Lawrence, Kansas, but also lived in Illinois, Ohio, and Mexico. By the time Hughes enrolled at Columbia University in New York, he had already launched his literary career with his poem "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" in the Crisis, edited by W E. B. Du Bois. He had also committed himself both to writing and to writing mainly about African Americans. View his full biography, a website devoted to his legacy, a website about his life and works, or search our Catalog for his books. |
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Within the first year or two of her life her family moved to all-black Eatonville and this community shaped her life and her writing to a significant degree. She moved to New York and there Hurston became part the New Negro movement -- later referred to as the Harlem Renaissance -- attending parties with other notable African American writers such as Langston Hughes, Jessie Fauset, and Arna Bontemps. View her full biography, a website about her life and works, or search our Catalog for her Books. |
In 1946 Petry's "Like a Winding Sheet" was named Best American short story of 1946. In 1946 Petry finished The Street, the first of her three novels. Ann Petry has also authored serveral children's books including Tituba of Salem Village. Ann Petry's The Street was the first novel by an African American to sell more than a million copies (--from the African American Literature Book Club) View a website about her, or search our Catalog for her books. |
See more African American Authors listings at the
African American Literature
Book Club website.
Also see more on current and upcoming releases at
The Sistah Circle
Book Club
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