African-American Interest Books – Free & Bargain Priced!
When The Color Purple won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1983, its author Alice Walker became the first woman of color to win the prize. She also went on to win the National Book Award for Fiction in the same year. Mel Watkins of the New York Times Book Review described the novel as a “striking and consummately well-written novel,” praising its powerful emotional impact and epistolary structure.
Beginning in the 1970s, African American interest books reached the mainstream as literature by Black writers continually achieved best-selling and award-winning status – this was also the period when the work of African-American writers became recognised as a distinct and legitimate genre of American literature.
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What is African-American Literature?
African-American literature is the body of literature produced in the United States by writers of African descent. It begins with the works of such late 18th-century writers as Phillis Wheatley. Before the high point of slave narratives, African-American literature was dominated by autobiographical spiritual narratives. The genre known as slave narratives in the 19th century were accounts by people who had generally escaped from slavery, about their journeys to freedom and ways they claimed their lives. The Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s was a great period of flowering in literature and the arts, influenced both by writers who came North in the Great Migration and those who were immigrants from Jamaica and other Caribbean islands. African-American writers have been recognized by the highest awards, including the Nobel Prize given to Toni Morrison in 1993. Among the themes and issues explored in this literature are the role of African Americans within the larger American society, African-American culture, racism, slavery, and social equality. African-American writing has tended to incorporate oral forms, such as spirituals, sermons, gospel music, blues, or rap.
The period of the 1970s saw many African-American books on bestseller lists. One of the first to do so was Roots: The Saga of an American Family by Alex Haley. A fictionalized account of Haley’s family history which went on to win the Pulitzer Prize and became a popular tv miniseries.
Other important writers include Gayl Jones, Rasheed Clark, Ishmael Reed, Jamaica Kincaid, Randall Kenan, and John Edgar Wideman. Poet Maya Angelou read a poem at Bill Clinton’s inauguration, Rita Dove won a Pulitzer Prize and served as Poet Laureate of the United States from 1993 to 1995, and Cyrus Cassells’s Soul Make a Path through Shouting was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 1994. Natasha Trethewey won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry with her book Native Guard. In 2004 Edward P. Jones won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his book The Known World.
Young African-American novelists include David Anthony Durham, Karen E. Quinones Miller, Tayari Jones, Kalisha Buckhanon, Mat Johnson, ZZ Packer and Colson Whitehead, among many others.
An African-American pioneer in genre fiction is Chester Himes, who in the 1950s and ’60s wrote a series of pulp fiction detective novels featuring “Coffin” Ed Johnson and “Gravedigger” Jones, two New York City police detectives. Himes paved the way for the later crime novels of Walter Mosley and Hugh Holton. African Americans are also represented in the genres of science fiction, fantasy and horror, with Samuel R. Delany, Octavia E. Butler, Steven Barnes, Tananarive Due, Robert Fleming, Brandon Massey, Charles R. Saunders, John Ridley, John M. Faucette, Sheree Thomas and Nalo Hopkinson just at the beginning of a very long list.
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award African American Interest Book – The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Highly reviewed African American interest books – Deliverance Mary Fields by Miantae Metcalf McConnell
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Until Forever Dies
Faye had dreams of making it to Hollywood with the love of her life, Braun, by her side. But when Braun murders the wrong suspect on a bad drug deal, his life is put at risk -- causing the relationship between him and Faye to crumble. Braun is now a target in the...
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A Hood Chick’s Story
Drama is no stranger to Tiara James. When it felt like the world had finally changed the hand that she'd been dealt, reality continued to creep up on her. With a mom on the verge of becoming an alcoholic and an alcoholic crack-addicted father who use to beat her mom...
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Essie’s Roses
#1 Amazon bestseller. Readers' Favorite Silver Medal Winner Best Southern Fiction. A sweeping, moving historical novel set before the Civil War about secrets, freedom, and the power of love. "Impressively well written from beginning to end, Essie's Roses is an...
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Feenin’ for His Love
What do you do when love just doesn't love you anymore? This was how Jessilynn Proctor has felt the last few years of her life. Hooked on a man who mistreats her and uses her size to degrade her, she still held on for her children's sake. Jessi's hope to one day...
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Addicted to Loving A Boss
Isa and Maylan are best friends who've fallen on hard times and will do whatever to change their situation. However, Isa tries to partake in a job she's never done and finds herself not only embarrassed, but humiliated in front of everyone. Unbeknownst to her, the...
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A Stranger in the Kingdom
This novel of murder and its aftermath in a small Vermont town in the 1950s is "reminiscent of To Kill a Mockingbird... Absorbing" (The New York Times). In Kingdom County, Vermont, the town's new Presbyterian minister is a black man, an unsettling fact for some of the...
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Parable of the Sower
The Nebula Award-winning author of Kindred presents a "gripping" dystopian novel about a woman fleeing Los Angeles as America spirals into chaos (The New York Times Book Review). Lauren Olamina and her family live in one of the only safe neighborhoods remaining on the...
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All Eyes on the Crown
If you loved Violet and the Connect then you'll enjoy reading the story about their kids. MJ is the eldest son, who at a young age confided in his father about taking over his empire. Miguel Sr. takes him under his wing and shows him everything he needs to know. On...
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In Love With A East Coast Maniac
In this spin-off you'll meet Paisley. Paisley is in a relationship with Rome. Rome is in a relationship with multiple women, the streets and lastly Paisley. While she knows she deserves better, she sits by his side while he continues to disrespect her. Rome comes with...
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Emotionless
Galleria Stores is a huge chain of stores owned by Paul Galleria. Everyone who is anyone in Atlanta knows the Galleria family and their influence in Atlanta. Paul has three daughters - Jade, Kharisma & Happy Galleria. This is Happy's story. Twenty-nine-year-old...
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The Audubon Park Murder
A beautiful college student is killed in Audubon Park - just a few feet away from St. Charles Avenue in New Orleans. There were no witnesses. The case is handed to newly minted detective, Elizabeth Silverman. It isn't long before Elizabeth realizes there are multiple...
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The Freedom Star
COMPELLING HISTORICAL FICTION- The Freedom Star is a riveting, character-driven saga of two families, one owned by the other, at the outbreak of America's Civil War. One reader calls it, "Powerful and evocative." Another describes it as, "Just one of those special...
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Supreme Reigns
With friends and family there always comes a time when loyalty is questioned. A young man with goals for him and his team to surpass the harsh reality of the streets is tested by the people that he trusted most. This is based on a true story about the rise, fall, and...
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Big Girls Need Love
Beauty comes in all shapes and sizes. This fact is what helped Bella and Blue develop their unbreakable bond that has only gotten stronger over the last 15 years. They've struggled through the challenges of being big, confidence issues, and finding a man who actually...
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Until Forever Dies
Faye had dreams of making it to Hollywood with the love of her life, Braun, by her side. But when Braun murders the wrong suspect on a bad drug deal, his life is put at risk -- causing the relationship between him and Faye to crumble. Braun is now a target in the...
read more
A Hood Chick’s Story
Drama is no stranger to Tiara James. When it felt like the world had finally changed the hand that she'd been dealt, reality continued to creep up on her. With a mom on the verge of becoming an alcoholic and an alcoholic crack-addicted father who use to beat her mom...
read more