Oh keep them coming - some fantastic suggestions here!

James McBride:
The Good Lord Bird
Deacon King Kong

I haven’t read The Color of Water, but it’s on my list.

Good list so far.


Also -- Ntozake Shange's Betsey Brown is one of my favorite novels.

Queen Sugar -- Natalie Baszile
On Beauty -- Zadie Smith
Sag Harbor or really anything by Colson Whitehead
Windward Heights -- Maryse Conde
The Women of Brewster Place by Gloria Naylor
Anything by Chester Himes, esp. If He Holler Let Him Go
Lost of stuff by Walter Mosley -- Devil with A Blue Dress

I love so many already mentioned. Please let me footstomp Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche. She’s a brilliant writer, thinker, and speaker. Half of a Yellow Sun is one of the most impactful novels I’ve ever read.

I would add these novels:

Patsy by Nicole Dennis-Benns
Here Comes the Sun by Nicole Dennis-Benns
Memorial by Bryan Washington
The Days of Afrekete by Asali Solomon
The Women of Brewster Place by Gloria Naylor
Swing Time by Zadie Smith

Homecoming by Yaa Gyasi

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Zadie Smith's White Teeth

+1 Loved this book

OP here. I didn't like this book at all. Hyped.

Anonymous wrote:Zadie Smith's White Teeth

+1 Loved this book

Anonymous wrote:Poets

Robert Hayden, Collected Poems
Ai, especially Cruelty/Killing Floor
Ntozake Shange, especially "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf"
Marilyn Nelson
Jericho Brown
Hayes Davis--From DC area!!
Teri Ellen Cross Davis--from DC area!! https://poets.org/poet/teri-ellen-cross-davis
Lucille Clifton, Quilting (a Pulitzer nom or finalist, can't recall)

Essayists
Roxane Gay, Hunger

Fiction
Jamaica Kincaid, Lucy

I had not heard of this writer previously, thank you!

Anonymous wrote:Any of the books by Attica Locke!

https://www.atticalocke.com/

thank you!

Anonymous wrote:Octavia butler, especially kindred.

Do you like black authors who are writing books that are not focused on the black experience?

My question was about the best books by Black authors, so whatever the subject matter.

Anonymous wrote:Passing by nella Larson
Their eyes were watching god by Zora neale Hurston
Girl, woman, other by Bernadine evaristo

Not novels, but there are so many short stories out there - by Gwendolyn brooks, Richard wright, Ralph Ellison, Alice walker, Langston Hughes, etc. Try looking up anthologies of short stories

I am not a fan of short stories, which is why I asked about books. I know poets, already but am open to more suggestions.

Anonymous wrote:Passing by nella Larson
Their eyes were watching god by Zora neale Hurston
Girl, woman, other by Bernadine evaristo

Not novels, but there are so many short stories out there - by Gwendolyn brooks, Richard wright, Ralph Ellison, Alice walker, Langston Hughes, etc. Try looking up anthologies of short stories

Thank you. I took a class with Bernadine Evaristo about 20 years ago and I didn't like her at all and I don't like her writing either. But the others on your list are great, thank you very much.

Anonymous wrote:Poets

Robert Hayden, Collected Poems
Ai, especially Cruelty/Killing Floor
Ntozake Shange, especially "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf"
Marilyn Nelson
Jericho Brown
Hayes Davis--From DC area!!
Teri Ellen Cross Davis--from DC area!! https://poets.org/poet/teri-ellen-cross-davis
Lucille Clifton, Quilting (a Pulitzer nom or finalist, can't recall)

Essayists
Roxane Gay, Hunger

Fiction
Jamaica Kincaid, Lucy

I purposefully didn't ask for poets but I'm grateful for this list. Lucille Clifton I love. Also Langston Hughes, who is one of my favorite poets of all time.

Anonymous wrote:Sula by Toni Morrison

OP here, thank you, yes I have read this. I love all of Toni Morrison's books.

Binti
Parable of the Sower