African American women book series in reading order

by Trisha R. Thomas

by Sister Souljah

Subjects attached to Kiki Swinson's books include urban and street lit, African American women, drug dealers, criminals, revenge and suspense. The catalogue holds 59 books from Wifey (2004) to Where There's Smoke (2024), including I'm Still Wifey, The Candy Shop and A Sticky Situation. Series listed for Swinson include Wifey, Cheaper to Keep Her, Notorious / Playing Dirty, New York's Finest, Black Market and Schemes. The status is listed as ongoing.

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.

Victoria Christopher Murray

34 books• 4 series

Victoria Christopher Murray is an American novelist and editor whose fiction follows African American women through marriage, friendship and faith. Temptation (1997) opens a catalogue of 34 books reaching Harlem Rhapsody (2025), and includes the Jasmine and the Jasmine and Rachel series. Gospel music, Christian women and family life recur across the titles. More than one million copies of Murray's books are in print.

Mary B. Morrison writes romance and erotica, and subjects include African American women, love triangles and Atlanta. The catalogue lists 28 books published between 1999 and 2020. Soulmates Dissipate (2000), Who's Making Love (2001), Never Again Once More (2002) and Sweeter Than Honey (2007) are among them. Morrison's series are Soulmates Dissipate and If I Can't Have You, and the catalogue also links Honey Diaries. Careful What You Click For (2020) is the newest, and the run is listed as likely complete.

Ashley Antoinette writes urban fiction and romantic suspense centred on African American women. The catalogue lists 53 titles from Diary of a Street Diva (2005) to Before the Streetlights Come On (2025). Named series include Ethic, Prada Plan, Butterfly, Single Ladies, Luxe, Luxury & Larceny and Love Burn. The Prada Plan (2009) and The Prada Plan 2: Leah's Story (2010) appear early in the list. Drug trafficking and murder for hire show up among the subject headings.

Mary Monroe writes African American fiction about women, friendship and family life. The God Don't Like Ugly novels run through the catalogue, joined by the Mama Ruby books, the Lexington, Alabama and Wiggins novels, Lonely Heart, Deadly Heart and Neighbors. Monroe's catalogue holds 35 titles, from The Upper Room (1986) to Bad Seeds, with publication continuing into 2026.

Rochelle Alers, born August 7, 1943, is an American romance novelist who has also written as Susan James and Rena McLeary. The catalogue lists 95 books from Careless Whispers (1988) to A Maverick of Honor (2026). Subjects cover African American romance, contemporary and historical romance, widows and New Orleans. Series include Hideaway Legacy, Eatons, Wickham Falls Weddings, Cavanaugh Island, Blackstones of Virginia and Whitfield Brides. Hideaway (1995) is among the titles.

Nikki Turner is an American writer of urban fiction whom Trendsetter Magazine called the Queen of Hip Hop Lit. A Hustler's Wife and A Project Chick, both from 2003, were the first two books and had sold about 150,000 copies by 2005. Turner, born in Richmond, Virginia, holds a degree from North Carolina Central University and left work as a travel agent to write full time, aiming to show the dark side of street life. The catalogue lists 28 books through Mamma (2024), including The Glamorous Life (2005), Riding Dirty on I-95 (2006), Forever a Hustler's Wife (2007) and Black Widow (2008). Unique, A Hustler's Wife, Project Chick and Glamorous Life are the series.

Gwynne Forster writes African American contemporary romance, and African American families, mothers and daughters, adoptees and twins appear in the subjects. The catalogue counts 45 books published between 1995 and 2013. Sealed with a Kiss (1995) is the first, followed by Against All Odds (1996), Ecstasy (1997) and Naked Soul (1998). Harringtons and Sizzling Sands are the series, and Passion's Price (2013) is the last title.

Chunichi writes urban fiction, and the catalogue's subjects name African American women, drug dealers, street life, revenge and California. The 12 catalogued books run from A Gangster's Girl (2004) to 2013. A Gangster's Girl and California Connection are the two series filed under the name, the latter reaching California Connection 2 (2009) and California Connection 3 (2011). Five further names hold credits on this catalogue alongside Chunichi's, and the run includes the numbered volumes Around the Way Girls 7 (2010) and Girls from da Hood 9 (2013).

De'nesha Diamond writes urban fiction, with African American women and street lit among the subjects, and has 12 books from 2010 to 2021. The series are Divas and Parker Crime. Heist (2010) is the first title, and Hustlin' Divas (2010), Street Divas (2011) and Gangsta Divas (2012) follow. Subjects also include sisters, female gang members, revenge, political corruption and Tennessee. Justified (2021) is the newest book.

L.A. Banks has 46 books catalogued from 1996 to 2011, and the author is listed as likely complete. Sundance (1996) and Slow Burn (1997) are the earliest, followed by Love Lessons, Love Notes and Rivers of the Soul (2001), then Soul Food and Through the Storm (2002). Minion appeared in 2003. Series include Vampire Huntress, Crimson Moon, Betrayal of the Trust and Scarface. Vampires, werewolves, Damali Richards, African American women and women martial artists appear in the subject tags, along with romance, horror and paranormal fiction.

Valerie Wilson Wesley writes mysteries, adult novels and children's books, and was an executive editor of Essence magazine. Tamara Hayle, a woman private investigator in New Jersey, heads one series; Odessa Jones and Harriet Stone head two more, and Willimena Rules! and the Book Of Black Heroes are for younger readers. The catalogue holds 28 books published between 1991 and 2025, from Great Women in the Struggle (1991) to The Mysterious Death of Junetta Plum (2025). African American women, schools and sisters run through the subject headings.

La’Tonya West writes urban fiction. Subject tags across the 25 catalogued books name African American women, man-woman relationships, love triangles and erotic stories, together with romantic suspense, pregnant women and illegitimate children. The run starts at Consequences (2009) and reaches From Main Chic To Side Chic (2021), and the series headings are Side Chic, Cookie and Meeko, Crazy In Luv, Nasty Secrets and Tremaine. Michel Moore and T.C. Littles each carry a single credit alongside West. The median listed length is 265 pages and the listing is dormant.

E.N. Joy writes Christian fiction with African American characters and church settings. Catalogue subjects name clergy, African American churches, Christian life, mothers and daughters, and Christian romance. The listing holds 22 books published between 2007 and 2017, from Even Sinners Have Souls (2007) to His Only Son, Her Only Regret (2017), across the New Day Diva, Still Divas, Always Divas and Forever Diva series. KaShamba Williams and Noire each share the credit on 1 title.

Terry McMillan

12 books• 1 series

Terry McMillan writes about African American women, their friendships and their families. Mama (1987) is the earliest of 12 catalogued titles, followed by Disappearing Acts (1989), Waiting to Exhale (1992), How Stella Got Her Groove Back (1996) and Getting to Happy (2010). It Was the Way She Said It (2025) is the most recent. Female friendship and family life fill the subject tags.

Tracy Brown (1974–2023) was an American author of urban fiction, associated above all with Staten Island, New York. Street life, drug traffic, revenge and the lives of African American women run through the books. Seventeen titles are catalogued, from Black (2003) through White Lines (2007) and Snapped (2009) to Brooklyn (2024), at a median length of 325 pages.

Niobia Bryant is an African-American novelist, born November 24 in Newark, New Jersey, who writes romance and mainstream fiction. Bryant has also written urban and crime fiction as Meesha Mink and young adult fiction as Simone Bryant. The 41 catalogued books begin with Admission Of Love (2000) and reach Breaking Their One Rule (2024). Series include Mistress, Strong Family, Cress Brothers, Hot In Holtsville, Friends & Sins, Dutton Sisters, Pace Academy and Passion Grove, with female friendship, adultery and South Carolina among the subjects.

Meesha Mink is a pen name of Niobia Bryant, a novelist born in Newark, New Jersey, who publishes romance and mainstream fiction under her own name and urban and crime fiction as Mink. Eight books stand under the Meesha Mink name, from Desperate Hoodwives (2008) to All Hail the Queen (2015), taking in The Hood Life, On the Grind, Get Money, Hustle Hard and Kiss the Ring. Two series carry the name: Bentley Manor and Real Wifeys. Catalogue subjects record urban and street lit, African American women, inner cities, revenge and contemporary romance. All 8 books carry page counts, a median of 284.

Kimberla Lawson Roby writes about African American families, marriage and the church. The Reverend Curtis Black series, opening with Casting the First Stone (2000), is the long-running sequence, and Behind Closed Doors (1996) came before it. Clergy, spouses of clergy and life in Illinois are recurring subjects. Twenty-nine books run to Sister Friends Forever in 2022, and nothing new has appeared since.

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.

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.

Wahida Clark writes urban fiction about African American women, the men in their lives and the criminal economies around both. Thugs and the Women Who Love Them (2002) opens the Thug series, followed by Every Thug Needs a Lady, Thug Matrimony and Thug Lovin'. The Payback books, Golden Hustla and Urban Isis follow. Thirty titles make up the catalogue, which ends at Covid, Mayhem and Murder in 2023.

Joy Deja King writes urban fiction: street life, money and revenge, with African American women and families across the subjects. The Bitch series opens the catalogue with Bitch: The Beginning (2006) and runs through Bitch Reloaded (2007), Queen Bitch (2008) and Last Bitch Standing (2009); Stackin' Paper, Female Hustler, Mafia Princess, Ride Wit' Me and Rich or Famous follow. Seventy-two books are catalogued, reaching Buried But Breathing in 2025.