African American authors book series in reading order

Maya Angelou

51 books• 3 series

Maya Angelou (April 4, 1928 – May 28, 2014), born Marguerite Annie Johnson, was an American memoirist, poet, essayist and civil rights activist. Angelou published seven autobiographies, three books of essays and several books of poetry. The first autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), covers Angelou's life up to age 17. Other catalogued titles include Gather Together in My Name (1974), Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas (1976), The Heart of a Woman (1981) and All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes (1986). The catalogue counts 51 books, including And Still I Rise (1978), and ends with Strategies of Abundance (2014). Angelou received more than 50 honorary degrees.

Alice Walker

50 books• 1 series

Alice Walker is an American novelist, poet, short story writer and social activist. Walker's 50 catalogued books run from The Third Life of Grange Copeland (1970) to Sweet People Are Everywhere (2021). The Color Purple (1982) won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, making Walker the first African-American woman to take that award, and it heads a Color Purple sequence. Poetry such as Revolutionary Petunias (1973) and essays such as In Search of Our Mother's Garden (1983) sit beside the novels. African American women authors, biography and poetry recur as subject headings. No new title has appeared since 2021.

Zora Neale Hurston

50 books• 1 series

Zora Neale Hurston (January 7, 1891 to January 28, 1960) was an American writer, anthropologist, folklorist and documentary filmmaker. Hurston depicted racial struggle in the early 20th-century American South and published research on Hoodoo and Caribbean Vodou. Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937) is the most popular of the four novels. Hurston also wrote more than 50 short stories, plays, the autobiography, ethnographies and essays. Catalogued titles include Jonah's Gourd Vine (1934), Mules and Men (1935), Tell My Horse and Dust Tracks on a Road (1942), among 50 books.

Isaac Asimov

553 books• 31 series

Isaac Asimov (c. January 2, 1920 – April 6, 1992) was an American writer who also taught biochemistry at Boston University. Hard science fiction is the core of Asimov's reputation, and the Foundation series about a fallen space empire is the most famous work; Asimov ranked with Robert A. Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke as one of the "Big Three" of the genre. The output also covers mysteries, fantasy and popular science, with non-fiction lines such as How Did We Find Out and the Library of the Universe. Asimov wrote or edited more than 500 books. This catalogue opens with the story Marooned Off Vesta (1939) and names Asimov on 400 of the listed books.

Brenda Streater Jackson, born February 2, 1953, is an American author of contemporary multicultural romance. Jackson was the first African-American author published in the Silhouette Desire line, and in October 2013 became the first African American to publish a 100th novel. The site lists 154 books from Tonight And Forever (1995) to Beneath The Dawn (2026). Madaris Family & Friends, Westmoreland Legacy, Forged of Steele, Catalina Cove and Grangers are among the series. Subjects include African American women, ranchers and romantic suspense.

James Baldwin

40 books• 4 series

James Baldwin (August 2, 1924 - December 1, 1987), born James Arthur Jones, was an American writer and civil rights activist whose essays, novels, plays and poems drew wide acclaim. Time magazine ranked Go Tell It on the Mountain among the top 100 English-language novels. The essay collection Notes of a Native Son (1955) established Baldwin as a voice for human equality, and a 1965 debate with William Buckley became a landmark on race in the United States. Catalogued works include Giovanni's Room (1956), Another Country (1962) and The Fire Next Time (1963), with race relations and African American life as recurring subjects.

Samuel R. Delany

61 books• 4 series

Samuel R. Delany, born April 1, 1942, is an African American writer and literary critic whose output covers science fiction, memoir, criticism and essays on literature, sexuality and society. Babel-17 and The Einstein Intersection won the Nebula Award for 1966 and 1967. Delany holds four Nebula Awards and two Hugo Awards and entered the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in 2002. The catalogue counts 62 books from The Jewels of Aptor (1962), including Nova (1968) and the Return to Nevèrÿon series, with The Edge of Language set for 2027.

Toni Morrison

46 books• 11 series

Toni Morrison, born Chloe Ardelia Wofford (1931-2019), was an American novelist and editor and the 1993 Nobel laureate in Literature. The Bluest Eye (1970) was Morrison's first novel. Song of Solomon (1977) won the National Book Critics Circle Award, and Beloved (1987) won the Pulitzer Prize in 1988. Sula (1973) and Recitatif (1983) are further works. Morrison grew up in Lorain, Ohio, and earned a B.A. in English at Howard University in 1953. The catalogue lists 46 books, including non-fiction, plays and short fiction, with Language as Liberation dated 2026.

Walter Mosley

71 books• 6 series

Easy Rawlins, a Black private investigator in Los Angeles, is the figure Walter Mosley returns to most. Devil in a Blue Dress (1990) opens the catalogue, which holds 71 books and reaches Ghalen (2026). Leonid McGill heads a second detective sequence, and Fearless Jones, Socrates Fortlow, King Oliver and the Crosstown to Oblivion science fiction books make up further lines. Los Angeles and New York are the recurring settings.