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Black Culture Fiction August 2026 |
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A Very Special Episode by Camille AckerIn Washington, D.C.'s powerful Black elite, legacy is everything. When a young heir to one of the city's most influential institutions seeks funding to cement her future, a shadowy organization offers to help--but it could cost her far more than she's willing to give. A biting satire about the ever-shifting ways to perform Blackness. This is a very special book.--Bridgett M. Davis, author of The World According to Fannie Davis Nina Johnson has always taken pride in belonging to The Tenth. After all, she's following in the footsteps of her ancestors: Her great-great-grandmother founded the prestigious DC society--a space for influential African Americans--just forty years after the Emancipation Proclamation. Nina's been elected to helm the organization, but she's determined to escape the influence of her mother, who has led the organization with a steadfast commitment to tradition, all while keeping Nina under her freshly manicured thumb.
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A Dance of Burning Blades
by M. H. Ayinde
War rages on in the second heart-pounding novel in M. H. Ayinde's relentless epic fantasy series The Invoker Trilogy, a sweeping epic of revenge and rebellion set in a richly drawn world of warring clans and ancestor magic. A DANCE OF RAGE. A DANCE OF RUIN. A DANCE OF BURNING BLADES. Tension simmers across the Nine Lands. In the capital, the people of Lordsgrave seethe with resentment after the horrors of the greyblood attack. Clan Adatali is in open rebellion against the king, and as war in the Feverlands rages on, a humble tree feller--who looks a lot like missing invoker Jinao Mizito--has not forgotten the promise he made to avenge his brother. Meanwhile, in the shadows, the king's daughter Lyela continues to move her pieces across the board. Can the people of the Nine Lands reclaim their stolen history and unlock the secrets that have been kept from them for centuries? Praise for the Invoker Trilogy: The exhilarating must-read fantasy debut of the year. --Tasha Suri A truly excellent debut. --James Islington Ayinde is a master storyteller. --Andrea Stewart The Invoker Trilogy A Song of Legends Lost A Dance of Burning Blades
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Take What You Can by Naima CosterA rich, panoramic exploration of female friendship, class, new motherhood, and independence. Val and Milly fell in love with France at the same time they fell in love with each other and became immediate best friends. Then, they bonded as the only Black students on a study-abroad trip. Now they are in their thirties, each married and with a baby girl on the way. When Milly suggests Val move to New York so they can raise their daughters together after a decade apart, it’s a resounding yes. |
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Our Sister's Keeper
by Jasmine Holmes
Mississippi, 1927. The groanings are coming.No town is perfect, but East Cobb comes close. It's a wealthy all-Black Free Town--untouched by white oppression--where ambitious Thea Elliot and her husband plan to make good on their big dreams. Little do they know that the idyllic town teems with ghoulish, walking nightmares . . . that only the women can see.Marah knows the groanings well. She is one of the carriers--women with the ability to pull traumatic memories from men. Populated by men entirely freed of their pain, East Cobb has flourished, even as the remnants of their memories haunt the town's women. When an unexpected death drives Marah to discover more about her own power, Thea's and Marah's worlds collide. The sisters must confront the rotten core at the heart of East Cobb's prosperity and choose what--and who--will survive the reckoning.A gripping blend of historical fiction and Southern gothic psychological horror, Our Sister's Keeper is a fierce exploration of Black sisterhood, rage, and resistance.
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The Ladies Hall: A Novel of Three Women Who Refused to Be Silenced by Vanessa MillerBased on the real lives of Mary Church Terrell, Anna Julia Cooper, and Ida Gibbs Hunt, The Ladies Hall is a mirror into times of great change--where progress and new possibilities are met with violence and resistance . . . but hope always rises. And it rises still.1880s, Ohio. When Mary and Anna enter the Bachelor of Arts program, also known as the "gentlemen's course" of study, at Oberlin College, they have little in common other than the color of their skin and their passion for education. |
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Season of the Serpent
by Suyi Davies Okungbowa
Award-winning author Suyi Davies Okungbowa returns in the final installment of the Nameless Republic trilogy with a tale of villains, allies, and a world on the brink of destruction, perfect for fans of Tasha Suri, Evan Winter, and James Islington. The old world has fallen. Now is the time of serpents. The continent is split. The islands have sunk. The empire of Bassa is no more. With the resistant Nameless Republic and the conquering Kangalaland on the brink of war, all must choose a side: ally, or fall. Oon's heroes and villains must rise from their ashes and meet a Third Great War. Peace won't come easy. Long-lost family will fight to reach Danso before war erases him forever. Lilong has survived the island catastrophe but lost her power, and will do anything to get it back. And fate will find Esheme where it left her--will the dead queen rise again? For Oon, the first season of the five states is a season of serpents. After the storms pass and winds blow, what will remain? And who will survive? Praise for The Nameless Republic: A thrilling, fantastical adventure that introduces a beguiling new world . . . and then rips apart everything you think you know.--S. A. Chakraborty An original and fascinating epic fantasy full of bold characters, bloody action, and brutal politics.James Islington The Nameless Republic Son of the Storm Warrior of the Wind Season of the Serpent
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