Top Black Authors You Should Read

In Honor of Black History Month, we’re highlighting some of the top Black authors whose works are highly praised. Maybe you’ll find something interesting to add to your reading list.

Alice Walker

Alice Walker is a novelist, short story writer, poet, and social activist. During her career, she has published 17 novels and short story collections. Walker started her writing career with her first book of poetry, and later continued with novels. She has also participated in the civil rights movement, advocated for women of color, and advocated for animals and pacifism. Her best-known work is The Color Purple, which tells the story of a poor African-American woman through her letters to God and her sister. This novel deals with themes like the legacy of slavery, racism, domestic abuse, and female empowerment. This novel led to Walker winning the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, becoming the first African American woman to win it.

Octavia E. Butler

Octavia Butler was a science and speculative fiction writer. Butler won many awards for her works and was also the first science fiction writer to receive a MacArthur Fellowship. She started writing science fiction as a teenager. Butler was encouraged to attend a science fiction writing workshop, and soon after, she sold her first stories. Butler also taught writers’ workshops and spoke on her experiences as an African American, which she used to write her stories. Her best-known book is Kindred, which follows the story of Dana, a modern Black woman who is transported back to the 19th century south to save her ancestor. Key themes in this novel are slavery’s legacy, power dynamics, and survival.

Toni Morrison

Toni Morrison was a novelist and editor. Her first novel was The Bluest Eye, which was published in 1970, and in 1987 she won the pulitzer prize for her novel Beloved. Morrison was the first black female editor at Random House in New York City. Morrison’s works are praised for addressing the consequences of racism and the Black American experience. Her best-known novel, Beloved, is the story of Sethe, who is an escaped slave, whose house is being haunted by the ghost of her baby.

Angie Thomas

Angie Thomas was born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi, where she was subjected to gun violence at a young age. When she was 6 years old, she witnessed a shootout between gangs. In an interview, she stated that after the shootout, her mother took her to a library to show her “there was more to the world” than what she saw. This inspired her to write. Thomas then went to get a Bachelor of Fine Arts. She was the first Black teenager to graduate from her creative writing course. Her best-known work is the young adult novel, The Hate U Give. This novel is about a teenager, Star, who has to navigate between two worlds: her poor, predominantly Black neighborhood and her rich, mostly white prep school.

James Baldwin

James Baldwin was a writer and a civil rights activist. His work presents personal questions and psychological pressure, often dealing with themes of masculinity, sexuality, race, and class. As an activist, Baldwin had a powerful voice in the Civil Rights Movement. He reported on significant events, especially in the South. He also attended major marches, like the March on Washington and the Selma to Montgomery March. One of his best-known books is Giovanni’s Room, which is about an American in Paris who struggles with his sexuality as he engages in an affair with a bartender named Giovanni, all while being engaged to a woman.

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