Black American Nonfiction
Enjoy these nonfiction titles by African American authors published within the last two years and selected by librarians at The Seattle Public Library. Annotations from review sources, as cited. (January 2025)
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There's Always This Year
The acclaimed poet and cultural critic uses his lifelong relationship with basketball to muse on the ways in which we grow attached to our hometowns, even when they fail us. Lyrically stunning and profoundly moving, the confessional text wanders through a variety of topics without ever losing its vulnerability, insight, or focus. (Kirkus)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Black Liturgies
For years, Cole Arthur Riley was desperate for a spirituality she could trust. Amid ongoing national racial violence, the isolation of the pandemic, and a surge of anti-Black rhetoric in many Christian spaces, she began dreaming of a more human, more liberating expression of faith. She went on to create Black Liturgies, a digital project that connects spiritual practice with Black emotion, Black memory, and the Black body. (Publisher copy)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Rooted
A well-documented study of land ownership among Black Americans and the accompanying land theft. A passionate, engaging combination of history, memoir, and examination of income inequality. (Kirkus)
Format: Book
Availability: All copies in use
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The Art of Ruth E. Carter
This definitive work makes visible the thought, care, and skill required of a successful film costumer. Carter is perhaps best known today for designing standouts for the Black Panther films, which made her the first Black woman to win two Oscars. (Library Journal)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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The Message
Coates presents three blazing essays on race, moral complicity, and a storyteller's responsibility to the truth. Brilliant and timely. (Booklist)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Gather Me
This inspiring memoir from the founder of the Well-Read Black Girl book club follows her journey from a challenging childhood, showcasing the transformative power of literature and community in finding one's voice and identity. (NoveList)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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The Gloomy Girl Variety Show
Freda Epum meditates on the cost of living and enduring as a Black disabled woman in America and examines her journey through healthcare and housing systems via a pop cultural lens: our collective obsession with HGTV's home buying and makeover shows. (NoveList)
Format: Book
Availability: No Longer Available
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Ode to Hip-hop
Music journalist Fitzgerald curates an eclectic list of albums for this respectable tribute to hip-hop. As a bonus, the book's illustrator, also known as Yay Abe, provides vibrant artwork that flows throughout and jumps off the page. (Library Journal)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Holy Ground
An inspiring collection of essays, personal and political, from the leading environmental justice activist of our time, that frames the challenges we face as a society and - with grace, generosity, and hope - charts the way toward equity, respect, and a brighter future. (Publisher description)
Format: Book
Availability: All copies in use
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The Black Box
Literary scholar and historian Gates parses the words, sounds, images, and insinuations of the fraught and curious history of Black self-definition over the ages. This gem brilliantly reflects multiple depictions of what it means to be a Black American amid complex, structured interracial and color-based discrimination discourses, in which writing and language are keys. (Library Journal)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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