African Americans book series in reading order

by Barbara Hambly

by Eric Jerome Dickey

by Sister Souljah

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.

Beverly Jenkins

60 books• 11 series

Beverly Jenkins writes historical and contemporary romance with a focus on 19th-century African American life. Born in Detroit in 1951, Jenkins was nominated for an NAACP Image Award in 2013, and in 1999 the African American Literature Book Club named her among the top 50 favourite African American writers of the 20th century. The catalogue holds 60 books from Night Song (1994) to Calling All Blessings (2025), including the Blessings, Old West, Le Veq Family and Grayson Family series. Recorded subjects include mail order brides, Kansas, and city and town life.

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.

Ann M. Martin

446 books• 24 series

Ann Matthews Martin, born August 12, 1955, is an American writer of children's and young adult fiction and a Smith College graduate. The Baby-Sitters Club, first published in 1986, is the series Martin is known best for, and Martin remains involved with the series and its spin-offs. The catalogue lists 446 books, beginning with Inside Out and Bummer Summer in 1983. Related lines include Baby-Sitters Club Mysteries, California Diaries, Kids in Ms. Colman's Class, Main Street and Doll People. Jessi Ramsey, Pet-sitter: A Graphic Novel (2025) is the newest listed title.

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.

Jacqueline Woodson

42 books• 7 series

Jacqueline Woodson, born February 12, 1963, is an American writer of books for children and young adolescents. Miracle's Boys is Woodson's best-known book, and Brown Girl Dreaming, After Tupac and D Foster, Feathers and Show Way each earned a Newbery Honor. Woodson was Young People's Poet Laureate from 2015 to 2017 and National Ambassador for Young People's Literature for 2018 to 2019. Another Brooklyn reached the 2016 National Book Award shortlist for fiction. Honors include the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (2018), the Hans Christian Andersen Award (2020) and a 2020 MacArthur Fellowship. The catalogue lists 42 books from Last Summer with Maizon (1990) to Remember Us (2023), with subjects such as African Americans, friendship, family life, race relations and grief.

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.

Adrianne Byrd (1970-2020) was an African-American author of romance novels. Thirty-eight Byrd books are catalogued between Defenseless (1997) and Milk and Honey (2019), organised into family and ensemble series - the Williams Family, the Adams Sisters, House of Kings, Kappa Psi Kappa Men, Unforgettable Hinton and Match Made. Atlanta is a recurring setting, and the books mix contemporary romance with suspense, taking in murder, women lawyers and marriage. The Beautiful Ones is the most widely held Byrd title in libraries.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Sharon M. Draper

31 books• 5 series

Sharon M. Draper is an American children's writer and professional educator, named National Teacher of the Year in 1997 and a two-time winner of the Coretta Scott King Award for books on young and adolescent African American experience. The Hazelwood High and Jericho series, Out of My Mind, Romiette and Julio, Copper Sun and Double Dutch are her best-known titles, alongside the Clubhouse Mysteries and Sassy series. Draper's catalogue holds 31 books dated 1970 to 2024, at a median 183 pages, taking in school stories, friendship, family life, race relations and death.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Chester Himes

23 books• 2 series

Chester Himes (July 29, 1909 - November 12, 1984) was an American writer, several of whose works were filmed. If He Hollers Let Him Go appeared in 1945. Himes is best known for the Harlem Detective novels, set in the 1950s and early 1960s, whose leads are two black policemen, Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson. France awarded Himes the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière in 1958. The catalogue lists 23 books, including Lonely Crusade (1947), For Love of Imabelle / A Rage in Harlem (1957), The Real Cool Killers (1958) and All Shot Up (1960).

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.

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.

Richard Wright

17 books• 1 series

Richard Wright (September 4, 1908 to November 28, 1960) was an American writer of novels, short stories, poems and non-fiction. Race runs through the work, particularly the discrimination and violence faced by African Americans from the late 19th to the mid-20th century. Uncle Tom's Children (1938), a collection of novellas, Native Son (1940) and the memoir Black Boy (1945) are Wright's best-known books. Literary critics credit the work with helping to change American race relations in the mid-20th century. The catalogue lists 17 titles, including 12 Million Black Voices (1941), The Outsider (1953), Eight Men (1958), The Long Dream (1958) and The Man Who Lived Underground (2021).