4 Black Authors to Add to Your Shelves

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If you identify as African American, you probably don’t see yourself represented in most books. That changes now! There are so many great books by Black authors coming out this year you don’t want to limit your reading to Black History Month.

 

From Trevor Noah to Charlie Mon, make 2022 a year about discovering Black literature and its subgenres by adding the following writers to your shelves.

1. Trevor Noah

You might’ve read this name and thought, ‘Doesn’t Trevor Noah host The Daily Show?’ He might host a daily show, but he also comes from a place of apartheid. Born a Crime is a written version of everything he’s joked about in his standup routines.

In his book, he shares what it was like to grow up as a biracial kid in a country where Black and White people weren’t allowed to be seen together. From surviving on caterpillars to surviving the dating pitfalls of high school, he depicts life in all its raw glory with a wit that you can only identify with the celebrity himself.

2. Mitchell S. Jackson

Mitchell S. Jackson is mostly known for writing nonfiction, so fiction enthusiasts may not be tempted to read his books. However, he also happens to have a fiction book in his bibliography that you might be interested in. It’s called The Residue Years, and it’s loosely based on Jackson’s life growing up in Portland, Oregon.

In case you don’t know, Portland is a predominantly White city. You’ll have to read the book to understand how that plays out in the novel, but for now, all you need to know is that this book is about a mother struggling with an addiction and a son selling that very addiction to support his mother and siblings. Read this book, and you’ll be hard-pressed not to read Jackson’s nonfiction work.

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3. Margaret Wilkerson Sexton

Margaret Wilkerson Sexton was born and raised in New Orleans. Today, she writes about what she experienced growing up in the South. The inevitable racial disparity and the systemic racism are designed to condemn a Black person to a life of crime. 

 

Although Sexton has many great books under her belt, A Kind of Freedom remains her rawest book to date. The story encompasses three generations of an African American family and their struggle with racism, addiction, and poverty in the unforgivable South.

4. Charlie Mon

Charlie Mon grew up in the city, but his experience was far removed from the highlife that defines an urban landscape. The urban fiction writer has utilized the genre that best represents him to create a world that resembles his own and is quite different at the same time.

Read Mon’s street literature, starting with Never Imagined, a book that’ll resonate with all the African American readers out there for its, at times, cold and endearing depictions of the African American life on the underside of San Bernardino, California.

Purchase a copy for a look at life on the streets of California for Vernon, Charles, Drevon, and Michael.

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