12 Books by Black authors releasing this month that have us excited
TheGrio...
From Marlon James’ latest to romantic thrillers, comedies, and more, we round up new books by Black authors coming out in September.
Marlon James is back with a brand new title, and it’s got a simple message.
“Be gay. Do crime. Get revenge. That’s it,” the 55-year-old award-winning author told Vulture earlier this year about the project.
On Tuesday, Sept. 1, James’ “The Disappearers” hit shelves with a story of queer love in 1980s Jamaica and effectively ushered in a brand new literary season.
Set in 1988 Kingston, the novel follows eight gay men brought together to rehearse a play before a brutal attack leaves one of them dead and the survivors grappling with grief, rage, revenge, and what comes next. Part crime story, part portrait of queer life in Jamaica, “The Disappearers” is also far from the only new title by a Black writer worth getting excited about this month.
Now through the rest of September, several new titles by Black authors are due out just in time to make it onto any fall TBR lists. In addition to James’ queer crime novel, romances, comedies, mysteries, historical thrillers, dazzling new collections, and more are all coming out. Below, we round up 12 additional titles we’re excited about.
“Black Arts” by Megan Giddings (Sept. 8)
Across 13 delightfully weird stories, in “Black Arts,” Giddings gets into messy families, complicated romances, and all the strange ways the supernatural can collide with everyday life, from disappearing husbands and sexy ghosts to artists looking far beyond this world for inspiration.
“Adam, mine” by K. Ancrum (Sept. 8)
A queer, romantic horror spin on “Frankenstein,” K. Ancrum’s latest, “Adam, mine,” follows a brilliant young Victor Frankenstein whose obsession with conquering death leads him to kidnap and resurrect a teenage boy, binding creator and creation together in a dark, messy journey through vengeance, guilt, love, forgiveness, and the increasingly blurry question of who the real monster is.
“You’ve Got A Place Here Too” edited by Ebony LaDelle (Sept. 8)
Featuring stories from Elizabeth Acevedo, Kiese Laymon, Kennedy Ryan, Nicola Yoon and more, “You’ve Got a Place Here, Too” is a love letter to young Black love and the HBCU experience, arriving just in time for the fall semester.
“My Train Leaves at Three” by Natalie Guerrero (Sept. 8)
Funny, heartbreaking, and hopeful, “My Train Leaves at Three” follows a grieving Afro-Latina actress from Washington Heights who finally gets a shot at her Broadway dreams, only to find herself navigating love, loss, and an industry that may ask her to give up more than she bargained for along the way.
“All My Sisters and Me” by Sheryl Lister (Sept. 8)
Jealousy, grief, old grudges, and some very complicated sister-in-law dynamics all come along for a week-long family anniversary celebration in “All My Sisters and Me,” where four women who have spent years growing further apart may finally have enough drama to either break the family for good or become the sisters they were always supposed to be.
“Queenie Is Working On It” by Candice Carty-Williams (Sept. 8)
Nearly a decade after the perfectly imperfect, ever relatable Queen stole our hearts in “Queenie,” we’re catching back up with Queenie Jenkins at 33 as she juggles a thriving career, fertility woes, messy situationships, old flames, family drama, and so much more in “Queenie Is Working On It.”
“The A Word” by Tisha Campbell (Sept. 15)
With honesty, heart, and of course, her signature sense of humor, Campbell opens up in “The A Word: A Mother’s Journey Through Autism and Love” about raising her son Xen, from his autism diagnosis and navigating schools and therapies to challenging everything she thought she knew about autism along the way.
“Ashes at the Altar” by LaDarrion Williams (Sept. 15)
The third and final installment in the groundbreaking “Blood at the Root” trilogy, “Ashes at the Altar” returns to magical HBCU Caiman University, where Malik must face evil spirits, family secrets and shifting loyalties as he fights to protect his family, his school and the magic running through his veins.
“The Perilous Fight” by Colin Kaepernick (Sept. 15)
A decade after taking a knee and the national reckoning the move kick-started, Kaepernick tells his side of the story in “The Perilous Fight,” tracing his journey from a Black child adopted into a white family to NFL star and activist, and beyond.
“American Nightmare” by Kelly McWilliams (Sept. 15)
Inspired by the life of civil rights activist Walter White, who passed as white to investigate lynchings for the NAACP, “American Nightmare” follows a light-skinned Black man doing the same dangerous undercover work across the Jim Crow South while confronting the very real horrors of racism and a sinister supernatural element that has haunted him since childhood.
“The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman” by Deesha Philylaw (Sept. 29)
In “The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman,” Philyaw returns with a wildly funny, juicy tale about a megachurch first lady whose fabulous “rags-to-Rolex” life comes crashing into her secret past when scandal erupts shortly after her 40th birthday.
“The Siren” by Tomi Adeyemi (Sept. 29)
Adeyemi trades fantasy for sinister dark academia in “The Siren,” following a scholarship student at Dartmouth who gets pulled into the increasingly seductive world of a powerful, mysterious group of women where belonging appears to come with a rather dangerous and steep price.