I would totally recommend Kwame Alexander, Angie Thomas (an obvious choice) and Jason Reynolds. Correct me if they're not African American. :) I'm on the way of reading some of Toni Morrison's books because according to all my friends and professors he's an amazing author.

This article presumes you want authors who have written 3 or more books: Tananarive Due, Edwidge Danticat, Terry McMillan, Gloria Naylor, Bernice L. McFadden, Pearl Cleage, Attica Locke, Danzy Senna, Victor LaValle, Kiese Laymon, Samuel R. Delany, Leonard Pitts Jr., Mat Johnson, Walter Mosley, Paul Beatty

The list goes on. Quite a few more than 6 authors and I just scratched the surface from my own collection...

Maria

Maria wrote: "I would totally recommend Kwame Alexander, Angie Thomas (an obvious choice) and Jason Reynolds. Correct me if they're not African American. :) I'm..."

Toni Morrison is a female. Now, find something of hers and read it. It's worth it.

Tiffany Jackson!

Attica Locke and Anissa Gray

Saeed Jones

Percival Everett

Marlon James is a brilliant writer and both A brief history of seven killings & Black leopard ,red wolf are fantastic works

Maria wrote: "I would totally recommend Kwame Alexander, Angie Thomas (an obvious choice) and Jason Reynolds. Correct me if they're not African American. :) I'm..."

Toni is female :)

John Edgar Wideman

Dan wrote: "John Edgar Wideman"

especially Two Cities and his short story collections God's Gym and Homewood. There are very few American writers of any "race'' gender who write about our cities as powerfully as Widemn.
Other favorites of mine are: Henry Dumas' The Echo Tree and Other Stories", Richard Wright's two magnificent short story collections- his very first (and arguablly finest) book- Uncle Tom's Childlren, and Eight Men ( which was published at the end his life even though some of the stories had been written when he wrote his first towering book Uncle Tom' Children.
I love Jean Toomer's experimental novel CANE, along with James Allen McPherson's magnifcent short story collections: Hue and Cry, and Elbow Room. for more info on great African American writers including Toni Cade Bambara, Sterling A. Brown ( one of AmeriCa' greatest poeTS). AND DONT FORGEST GWENDOLYN BROOKS AND CHARLES JOHNSON. OR STERLING

Whitehead and Jones are on my list, and I've read some Gay. For now, I've gone back to Toni Morrison though, an old favorite. Started The Bluest Eye last night!

I love Gay's Bring The Shovel Down Have you checked out Douglas Kearney? Buck Studies and Black Automaton.
how about Patricia Smith? Blood Dazzle ( about Hurricane Katrina)
some other fantastic poets:
Hyesoon Kim -Its OK; I'm PIG
Daniel Borzuzky- The Murmur of the Carcass of the Rotting Economy
Linh Dinh- A M E R I K A (poems) Borderlesso Bodies) amazing'
If you read Whitehead, make sure you check out John Henry Days
Also have you read much Toni Cade Bambaa- sharp and hilalrious

Maria wrote: "I would totally recommend Kwame Alexander, Angie Thomas (an obvious choice) and Jason Reynolds. Correct me if they're not African American. :) I'm..."

He? Toni Morrison was a woman.

I know, right??? How is Angie Thomas not here???

The Hate U GiveOn the Come Up

Just a thing. I've read 6 of these 8 writers and the other 2 are featured in my TBR, but I always balk at headings like "...Authors You Should Be Reading.

Like, "You're not the boss of me."

Dan wrote: "John Edgar Wideman"
Glad someone else reads John Wideman. I think I've read everything he has published in book form. Of course, I was one of his students at the University of Wyoming a million years ago. I do think he's truly a "great" writer.

Halfway through Evan Winter's Rage of Dragons right now. So far, so good.

I highly recommend Nnedi Okorafor and Octavia E. Butler to the sci-fi inclined.

James Baldwin
Jennifer C. Nash
Angela Y. Davis
Charlene Carruthers
Patrisse Khan-Cullors
Malcolm X
Ibram X. Kendi

Maria wrote: "I would totally recommend Kwame Alexander, Angie Thomas (an obvious choice) and Jason Reynolds. Correct me if they're not African American. :) I'm..."

Toni Morrison is female

Forget the contemporary ones, they are just confused activists, pushing for individual disempowerment.

If you want to read an american author, that happens to be with black skin, read the great Thomas Sowell!

Mary Monroe

Other recommendations by black authors:
Invisible by Stephen L. Carter
The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
Fly Girl By Sherri L. Smith
Orleans By Sherri L. Smith

Hey, has anyone mentioned that Toni Morrison was a woman? Just checkin.

Ibram X. Kendi

Juliet wrote: "Other recommendations by black authors:
Invisible by Stephen L. Carter
The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson"

I got the chance to meet Isabel Wilkerson when she came through the Portland airport & stopped in at the bookstore I worked at & asked how she could get some love (a shelf talker) for her book. When I asked what the title of her book was I never in a million years expected to be talking to a National Book Award-winning author & my knees almost buckled. I told her I'd love to be the one to read & write a tag for her book & it ended up being one of my favorites that year & a big hand seller for me.
I also want to shout out for the author Brandy Colbert--a YA author who writes about tough topics very well.

Kalisha Buckhanon

Zadie Smith

Yaa Gyasi

Kwame Alexander

De'Shawn Charles Winslow

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Walter Dean Meyers

Edwidge Danticat

Jamaica Kincaid

Gloria Naylor

Michelle Alexander

Isabel Wilkerson

Ibram X. Kendi

Connie Briscoe

Diane Mckinney-Whetstone

Walter Moseley

Bebe Moore Campbell

J. California Cooper

ZZ Packer

Imbolo Mbue

Zinzi Clemmons

Taiye Selasi

Stephen L. Carter

My goodness, this list is just a tease for other bibliophiles. Enjoy!

Edward P. Jones, The Known World and his short story collections.

I recommend Renée Watson (who to my knowledge is AA) though her contemporaries are geared more toward young adults. I love her stories, and her characters are always relatable. She also weaves in African-American history masterfully into her stories.

Kai Ashante Wilson if you like fantasy and science fiction.

Aleksandar wrote: "Forget the contemporary ones, they are just confused activists, pushing for individual disempowerment.

If you want to read an american author, that happens to be with black skin, read the great Th..."

If you can say this about great poets like Patricia Smith, Tyehimba Jess, Marilyn Nelson and scores of CaveCanem poets, you have no taste no grace and are mired in your Sowellian conservatism. Your remarks are unfounded and have not an iota of any discernment or analysis. You should think careflullly about that word: analysis.

Dan wrote: "Dan wrote: "John Edgar Wideman"
Glad someone else reads John Wideman. I think I've read everything he has published in book form. Of course, I was one of his students at the University of Wyoming a..."

Lucky you. And you are so spot on. Do you have favorite books of his?

Juli wrote: "Edward P. Jones, The Known World and his short story collections."

Did you know that Jones is doing something with his two short story collections that, as far as I know has never been done before in literature from anywhere?? The characters in his first collection reappear in his second collection!!! Check it out. The first collection is Lost In The City; the second is Aunt Hagar's Children. Stories about his native home Washington DC.
As someone who grew up in Brooklyn, Im so heartened when there are books about the city. When i went to publilc school in the fifties and sixtiess, most the literature curriculum k-12 ( and beyond in college) was overwhelmingly rural LittleHouseonThePrairie The Yearling My Friend Flicka Where The Red Fern Ferns. Not a subway, fire hydrants or project was in sight. The few exceptions I foundon my own- Dos Passos Manhattan Transfer, Dreiser's Sister Carrie, Wright's Native Son, James Farrell's Studs Lonigan, Malamud's The Magic Barrell some of John Ohara. But there were cities portrayed in the thenunderratedl detective writers- Dashiell Hammet, Raymond Chandler of great reputtion, and their peer who was not recognized CHESTER HIMES, creator of the Harlem Crime series starring Gravedigger Johnson and Coffin Ed Joness! WOW!

Michael wrote: "Ibram X. Kendi"

Kendi's book Stamped From The Beginning is , hands down, one of the most American history books with African Americans as the center, in the last thirty years and given the number of superb historians, that is saying a lot but get it and see for yourself.

Oh, there are so many talented contemporary black authors. Here are a few of my rec's (besides the ones mentioned in the article).

Ibram X. Kendi How to Be an Antiracist

Howard Bryant Full Dissidence: Notes from an Uneven Playing Field

Nalo Hopkinson Midnight Robber

Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah Friday Black

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o Minutes of glory

Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor The Dragonfly Sea

Tochi Onyebuchi Riot Baby

L. Penelope Song of Blood & Stone

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie We Should All Be Feminists

Helen Oyeyemi Gingerbread and What is Not Yours is Not Yours

If You Keep Digging Keletso Mopai

Can't recommend her enough. Short stories that pack a lot of punch. South african.

And of course, Jesmyn Ward writes splendidly. Sing, Unburied, Sing was definitely my favorite in 2019

Mare wrote: "Just a thing. I've read 6 of these 8 writers and the other 2 are featured in my TBR, but I always balk at headings like "...Authors You Should Be Reading.

Like, "You're not the boss of me.""

Im not anybody's boss; Im simply trying to share my knowledge. Read what you want to read.

Maria wrote: "I would totally recommend Kwame Alexander, Angie Thomas (an obvious choice) and Jason Reynolds. Correct me if they're not African American. :) I'm..."
Amen! Those authors are amazing! Anyone, especially black people who haven't read "On The Come Up" need to read this this was an empowering book for me as a black person and one of the best books I've ever read.

She: Toni is a woman.

Maria wrote: "I would totally recommend Kwame Alexander, Angie Thomas (an obvious choice) and Jason Reynolds. Correct me if they're not African American. :) I'm..."

Maria wrote: "I would totally recommend Kwame Alexander, Angie Thomas (an obvious choice) and Jason Reynolds. Correct me if they're not African American. :) I'm..."

I just discovered Elizabeth Acevedo. Poet X is short and a very good read. She has a new one coming out May 5, Clap When You Land. I am looking forward to the read.

Maria wrote: "I would totally recommend Kwame Alexander, Angie Thomas (an obvious choice) and Jason Reynolds. Correct me if they're not African American. :) I'm..."

Toni Morrison was a woman and she was an amazing author! Read her!

I would also highly recommend other black authors like Octavia Butler, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, L.S. Bergman, Elizabeth Acevedo, Zadie Smith, Toni Morrison, Ibram X. Xendi, Renee Watson, Diana Evans, Chigozie Obioma, Yaa Gyasi

Dan wrote: "Dan wrote: "John Edgar Wideman"
Glad someone else reads John Wideman. I think I've read everything he has published in book form. Of course, I was one of his students at the University of Wyoming a..."

NOW WE ARE TALKLNG ABOUT A WORLD CLASS AUTHOR INSTEAD OF SOME OF THESE BOOKS THAT ARE EITHER GLORIFIED LEAFLETSS OR POPULAR PA

Dan wrote: "Dan wrote: "John Edgar Wideman"
Glad someone else reads John Wideman. I think I've read everything he has published in book form. Of course, I was one of his students at the University of Wyoming a..."

NOW WE ARE TALKLNG ABOUT A WORLD CLASS AUTHOR INSTEAD OF SOME OF THESE BOOKS THAT ARE EITHER GLORIFIED LEAFLETSS OR POPULAR PA

Mare wrote: "Just a thing. I've read 6 of these 8 writers and the other 2 are featured in my TBR, but I always balk at headings like "...Authors You Should Be Reading.

Like, "You're not the boss of me.""