100+ Black Authors to Read

~ Ally Writes Things

Hello friends and foe, happy Friday! As you are likely aware, there is a lot happening the US and around the world right now regarding Black Lives Matter. As a white person, I have incredible privilege. It is my duty as an ally to support Black people wherever possible and to use my voice for good.

In light of current situations, my usual blog content is being pushed back a few weeks. I don’t want to distract from everything happening right now by posting a completely unrelated and silly recommendations post or unrelated book review.

So instead, today I’m going to be recommending 100+ Black authors that you should read. Not all of these are books about racial injustice. I’ve also included fun books, because as important as it is to educate yourself, it’s equally important to read about happy Black people. Some books are written by Black authors but are not necessarily related to Black experiences with racism, because it is important to read about all facets of Black life, not just racism. I also tried to include international authors, because while it is important to understand racism in America, it’s also important to understand racism in your country as well. Not all of these are authors I’ve read; a lot of them are authors I want to read because I am far from perfect and have a lot of reading to do myself. Many of these are by queer authors, as well.

There is genuinely any genre you could want: sci-fi, fantasy, queer romances, memoirs, non-fiction on the prison system, mystery, thriller, YA contemporary, historical fiction, literary fiction, speculative fiction, graphic novels, poetry, even a gay hockey romance. There is no excuse to not read Black authors!

If you want to passively support BLM causes, here’s a thread of YouTube videos where the proceeds are going to different organizations! You can play one of them in the back while you read this post, or your book by a Black author.

https://twitter.com/cooIpeopIe/status/1267937798755102723

First: some free resources!!!

Some lovely people compiled a comprehensive Google Drive of FREE PDFs of papers, essays, and speeches written by Black writers. You can find the Google Drive here. This link will take you to the free resources. Please, though, if you read something and enjoy it, consider buying a copy, too, to support the writer/their estate! All the writers listed below (as well as many other resources) are available in the Google Drive.

I’ve also listed some of the author’s specific publications. The links below will take you to the Goodreads page of the listed work.

Non-fiction

About race

Memoir

Other

Fiction

Where possible, I’ve tried to indicate what genre/age group the book is, whether it has LGBTQ+ representation, and (because I’m Canadian and want to keep track for myself) whether the author is Canadian.

How about some poets?

The links will take you to the poet’s Goodreads page, if one exists for that poet.

Here you can read 12 poems for free! And here are some more!

Some anthologies

Goodreads lists

If this list wasn’t enough, here are some Goodreads lists so you can find exactly what you’re looking for

So there are a TON of Black books and authors to read. Remember that your education should be continuous, and these are authors you should be aspiring to read for years to come.

But anyway, if you’ve read any of these, please let me know! This list is no way meant to be comprehensive, so please tell me your favourite Black authors, and I’ll add them to the list!

Thanks for reading! xx

Some petitions to sign if you haven’t yet:

Learn how you can help out here! And here’s a link to a mutual aid fund, where your donation will go to multiple bail funds!

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Published by Ally Writes Things

I like books and talking about my opinions.

24 thoughts on “100+ Black Authors to Read”

  5. Wow! That’s quite a list. I hope it’s okay, I added a link to this list in the post I scheduled for Sunday with ideas on ways to help. And I’ll be referencing this later when I’m looking for more new-to-me reads. (I’m happy to see that the ones I just bought this week are already on your list. 🙂 )

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