African American women book series in reading order

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.

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.

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.

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.

Sister Souljah

9 books• 2 series

Sister Souljah writes urban fiction about African American life in New York's inner cities. The catalogue holds 9 titles, from No Disrespect (1994) to Love After Midnight (2024). The Coldest Winter Ever (1999) heads the series that carries its name, continuing through Midnight, A Deeper Love Inside and Life After Death. Gangsters, African American women and African American girls recur in the subject tags.

Eric Jerome Dickey wrote about African American men and women, love and betrayal, often in Los Angeles. 33 catalogued books run from Sister, Sister (1996) to The Son of Mr. Suleman, including Friends and Lovers (1997), Milk in My Coffee (1998), Cheaters (1999) and Liar's Game (2000). The Gideon novels, the McBroom Sisters and Nia Simone Bijou head series of their own, alongside standalone fiction, short stories and graphic novels. The catalogue closed in 2021.

Zane writes erotic fiction centred on African American women and their relationships. The catalogue holds 29 books published between The Hot Box (1996) and Vengeance in 2015, among them Addicted (1998), The Sex Chronicles (2000) and the Chocolate Flava anthologies. Sisters, college life and sexual behaviour run through the subjects, and nothing later than 2015 is catalogued.

Carl Weber

38 books• 11 series

Carl Weber, born 1964, is an American author, publisher and television writer and producer who owns the publishing house Urban Books and formerly owned the Urban Knowledge bookstore chain. The catalogue holds 38 books of African American urban fiction and romance, from Lookin' For Luv (2000) and Married Men (2001) to Dating to Die (2026). Weber's novels became the films The Man in 3B (2015), The Preacher's Son (2017), The Choir Director (2018) and Influence (2020). The Family Business book series is the basis of the crime drama The Family Business (2018), and Weber created The Black Hamptons in 2022.

Tia Williams is an American novelist and editor with a long career as a fashion editor, now editorial director at the Estée Lauder Companies. The Accidental Diva (2004), The Perfect Find (2016) and Seven Days in June (2021) are the best-known novels. The catalogue lists 8 books through The Missed Connection (2026), plus the It Chicks series. Subjects include African American women, women editors, publishing and high schools. Williams continues to publish.

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.

Alyssa Cole

25 books• 5 series

Alyssa Cole, born in 1982, is an American novelist who works across historical, contemporary, science fiction, mystery and thriller registers. Her characters carry a wide range of professions, from Civil War spies to present-day epidemiologists, and her romances cover both straight and gay relationships. The Loyal League follows Black agents during the Civil War; Reluctant Royals and Runaway Royals handle the contemporary side. Twenty-five books span 2014 to 2024, from Eagle's Heart to One of Us Knows.