The story of a runaway mother’s ten days of freedom—and the pain, desire, longing, and wonder we find on the messy road to enlightenment—from Pulitzer Prize winner Quiara Alegría Hudes.

April is a young mother raising her daughter in an intergenerational house of unspoken secrets and loud arguments. Her only refuge is to hide away in a locked bathroom, her ears plugged into an ambient soundscape, and a mantra on her lips: dead inside. That is, until one day, as she finds herself spiraling toward the volcanic rage she calls the white hot, a voice inside her tells her to just . . . walk away. She wanders to a bus station and asks for a ticket to the furthest destination; she tells the clerk to make it one-way. That ticket takes her from her Philly home to the threshold of a wilderness and the beginning of a nameless quest—an accidental journey that shakes her awake, almost kills her, and brings her to the brink of an impossible choice.

The White Hot takes the form of a letter from mother to daughter about a moment of abandonment that would stretch from ten days to ten years—an explanation, but not an apology. Hudes narrates April’s story—spiritual and sexy, fierce and funny—with delicate lyricismand tough love. Just as April finds in her painful and absurd sojourn the key to freeing herself and her family from a cage of generational trauma, so Hudes turns April’s stumbling pursuit of herself into an unforgettable short epic of self-discovery.

An ambitious, panoptic novel about exile as both condition and state of being by a major young Cuban writer

The characters in False War are ambivalent castaways living lives of deep estrangement from their home country, stranded in an existential no-man’s land. Some of them want to leave and can’t, others do leave but never quite get anywhere.

In this multivoiced novel, employing a dazzling range of narrative styles from noir to autofiction, Carlos Manuel Álvarez brings together the stories of many people from all walks of life through a series of interconnected daisy chains. From Havana to Mexico City to Miami, from New York to Paris to Berlin, whether toiling in a barber shop, roaring in Yankee Stadium, lost in the Louvre, intensely competing in a chess hall in Cuba, plotting a theft, or on a junket for émigré dissidents in Berlin, these characters learn that while they may seem to be on the move, in reality they are paralyzed, immersed in a fake war waged with little real passion.

The fractured narrative, filled with extraordinary portraits of ordinary people, reflects the disintegration that comes from being uprooted. At the same time it is full of tenderness, moments of joy and profound release. False War confirms Carlos Manuel Álvarez as one of the indispensable voices of his generation in Latin American letters.

Nothing is impossible—not even being brave enough to ice skate again after a fall! With a poetic text and dazzling illustrations, Come Catch a Dream will appeal to every child chasing their dream, and fans of The Snowy Day, Jabari Jumps, and After the Fall.

A young Black child passes an ice rink every day walking home with Momma. Last year, the rink was tricky. It looked clear and smooth, but felt rough and rude after a fall. Brrr! Ouch! Even so, the child hasn’t been able to stop thinking about that rink. The young skater is determined to do something for the first time: a spin on the ice. Because, as Momma says, nothing is impossible.

Award-winning author Brittany J. Thurman’s rich use of language and rhythm makes for a text that is perfect for reading aloud, while illustrator Islenia Mil’s vibrant artwork captures the anticipation and excitement of a winter day at the ice rink. For fans of Gaia Cornwall and Dan Santat.

A brilliant and compelling debut, Ravishing shines a light on the dark enticements of the beauty industry and how it capitalizes on our desire to be someone we are not

A provocative, darkly surreal novel of two Indian American siblings caught in the clutches of a beauty tech company, Ravishing is a searing portrait of the beauty industry’s dangerous ability to change people’s relationship to their bodies and the cult-like grip it has on youth.

For teenage Kashmira, it’s painful to look in the mirror; she has her father’s face, and every feature is a reminder of his abandonment. When a friend introduces her to Evolvoir, a beauty product that changes users’ features, Kashmira is quickly hooked on how it allows her to erase the triggers of her grief. Meanwhile, at Evolvoir’s corporate offices, Kashmira’s estranged brother Nikhil first sees the product as an opportunity to make a difference and a name for himself, but is quickly mired in corporate complicity as reports surface of the product causing severe pain and persistent symptoms in some users. As chaos ensues, Kashmira is hospitalized and must negotiate the constraints of her new reality, while Nikhil uncovers a vicious truth that will force him to decide where his loyalties lie.

Perfect for readers of Gold Diggers and You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine, Ravishing is a visceral, yet immensely tender, coming-of-age story of two Indian American siblings caught in the clutches of a predatory beauty tech company, providing an illuminating portrait of the complexities of growing up brown, chronic illness, and our relationship to ourselves.

Khaled and Jamila is a sweeping, multigenerational novel by Palestinian-American writer Anan Ameri that explores the enduring power of love and family across continents and cultures, asking what, in a divided world, truly lasts.

What in the world is beautiful forever? When disconnection rocks a family, the mistakes of one generation become the heartaches of the next …

1959, the West Bank, Palestine. Khaled’s bossy, hot-tempered father insists that his son go to college in the States so he can learn to help him run his business. Khaled, Arabic for forever, is reluctant to leave his secret, hometown crush. But he’s bullied into taking off for Ann Arbor. There he falls for a blue-collar American girl. One thing leads to another, including a daughter named Jamila, Arabic for beautiful. Family mayhem erupts on all sides.

Fast forward to 1984. Jamila has come of age growing up in Ann Arbor during the turbulent sixties and seventies. There she falls for her brother’s best friend, Ali, who she’s known for years. But even though he’s practically a member of the family, Ali is Black. Interracial marriages in the US are still few and far between. Mayhem breaks out again, tearing close ties apart.

And so, what might Sitti, the grandmother conciliator, have to say?

The names and heartaches of Khaled and Jamila ask, what in this mad world is beautiful forever? In Anan Ameri’s noisy, impatient, vibrant novel, enduring beauty is the kind of love that family can teach us. And it’s the larger, ever-expanding family of connections that love can show us when we learn to let it.

From one of the most important figures in American journalism -- acclaimed historian, Pulitzer finalist, staff writer at the New Yorker, and dean of Columbia Journalism School--a devastatingly insightful collection of published and original work that paints a kaleidoscopic portrait of our last turbulent decade.

What just happened?

From the moment Trayvon Martin's senseless murder initiated the Black Lives Matter movement in 2014, America has been convulsed by the new social movements--around guns, gender violence, sexual harrassment, race, policing, and on and on--and an equally powerful backlash. Jelani Cobb has been reporting and commenting on these changes--sometimes from the frontlines of places like Ferguson and Charleston, other times from a more studied remove, where he applies his gifts as a critic and background as a historian to penetrate the meaning of it all. He has written profiles of some of the key figures of the era--from directors and comedians to activists and politicians--and written on some of great cultural artifacts--film, television, and music. Through this shifting lens, he's captured the crises, the movements, and absurdity of an era--and helped readers understand what might be coming next.

As in this country's other great moments of turbulence, this has been an era of democratic expansion and contraction, the latest in a series of battles over what it means to be an American. Cobb strings this collection together with original work--the original pieces provide the connective tissue that helps readers see these powerful short dispatches as a cohesive, epic narrative of one of the most consequential, but hard to understand, eras in American history.

Beautifully illustrated with more than 200 photographs, including never-before-seen images, The Look is a stunning journey through Michelle Obama’s style evolution, in her own words for the first time.

In this celebration of style, from the moment she entered the public eye during her husband’s U.S. Senate campaign through her time as the first Black First Lady and today as one of this country’s most influential figures, Michelle Obama shares how she uses the beauty and intrigue of fashion to draw attention to her message.

Featuring the voices of Meredith Koop, Obama’s trusted stylist, as well as her makeup artist Carl Ray, hairstylists Yene Damtew and Njeri Radway, and many of the designers who have dressed Obama for notable events, The Look brings readers behind the scenes not only to reveal how her most memorable looks came together but also to tell a powerful story about how we present ourselves.

Obama’s intimate and candid stories illuminate how her approach to dressing has evolved throughout her life—from the colorful sheath dresses, cardigans, and brooches she wore during her time as First Lady to the bold suits, denim, and braids of her post-White House life and all the active looks and beautiful gowns in between.

In The Look, Michelle Obama explores the joy and the purpose of fashion and beauty and how—when wielded with grace and care—they can uplift and affirm the values one holds most dear. Confidence, she concludes, cannot be put on. But when you’re wearing something that’s intentional or beloved, clothing can make you feel like the best version of yourself.

This gorgeous DELUXE LIMITED EDITION is available while supplies last―featuring stenciled sprayed edges, as well as exclusive special design features. This must-have special edition is only available on a limited first print run while supplies last in the US and Canada only.

The breathtaking sequel to the #1 New York Times bestseller, Immortal Dark!

Like all ruinous things, he came from the abyss.
 
Kidan Adane has finally embraced her darkness. She’s killed without remorse, lied, and broken Uxlay University’s most sacred law by inviting elusive rogue vampires, the Nefrasi, into Uxlay.
 
Trapped with a violently unstable vampire, and reeling from her sister’s return, Kidan wields her anger like a weapon. She vows to master her house and protect the sacred artifact hidden inside, even if it means forging an alliance with the depraved leader of the Nefrasi, Samson Sagad--and betraying Susenyos.
 
A dangerous new philosophical text seems to hold the answers and promises the very thing Kidan has lost: control. Even as the dark pages consume her, Kidan knows no soul at Uxlay is trustworthy—least of all Susenyos. For Kidan and Susenyos, the lines of loathing and attraction may blur, but the quest for power rules them both. And neither is willing to surrender.
 
As devastating secrets resurface from the past, Kidan and her sister, June, must finally confront each other and take their rightful places in the looming war.

DELUXE LIMITED EDITION features stenciled edges, color endpapers, and a unique jacket that reveals an alternate case cover illustration when removed. Available for a limited time while supplies last.

From New York Times bestselling author Akwaeke Emezi comes a steamy paranormal romance set in the Black South--a bold new foray that takes us on a journey of magic and fantasy, from the whispering creeks outside the city of Salvation to the very depths of Hell itself.

Tenderhearted Galilee was raised by the Kincaids, a formidable clan of Black women sequestered deep in the weeping willows and dark rushing creeks of their land. Galilee has always known that she's different--that there is an old and unknowable secret around her very existence. It has been a hollow ache inside her since her childhood, something she assumes she will always have to live with.

Until she meets Lucifer Helel. He's fronting as the head of security for her wealthy friend Oriaku's family, protecting a mysterious, ancient artifact, but from the moment she lays eyes on him, Gali knows he's not human. From her first incendiary touch, Lucifer knows something even Gali herself doesn't--that she isn't human either.

Enter: Leviathan. As Lucifer's most trusted prince of Hell, Levi is ruthless and determined to eliminate the intolerable danger that is Galilee before she brings death and disaster to those he loves. While unseen battles rage between Hell, Heaven, and earth, Lucifer and Galilee's attraction threatens to bring all the structures of their existence crashing down around them.

Soon, loyalties will be shattered and reformed as Kincaid secrets clash with the princes of Hell, driving even the most powerful to their knees. Galilee Kincaid must decide if she will step into herself and embrace the consequences of power in this astonishing, seductive, and wildly original fantasy.

Spanning four decades and three continents, Bitter Honey is a story about a mother and daughter divided by long buried secrets, struggling to understand each other as they forge their own paths, from the internationally bestselling author of In Every Mirror She’s Black.

1978: A scholarship draws Nancy from Gambia’s warmth into Stockholm’s frigid winter. When her friendship with charismatic scholar Lars blossoms into something more, she thinks she may have finally found her place. But there’s more to Lars than his charming persona, and Nancy is about to discover the danger of being drawn into his world… 

2006: Tina has had her taste of fame as Sweden’s sweetheart pop princess, representing her country at Eurovision. But beneath her glittery façade, she’s uncertain who she really is. Her mother, Nancy, seems desperate to keep the past under wraps, but will the unexpected appearance of Tina’s father—a man she has long thought dead—help open the door to self-discovery?

Nancy just wants to protect her daughter from making the same mistakes she did, but Tina longs for the freedom to mess up, knowing her mother will always be there to support her. The two women love each other unconditionally, but can they learn to trust each other as well?

This poignant novel delves deep into the complicated relationships between mothers and daughters and delivers a warm, heartfelt story of love, forgiveness, and women finding their voices.

A first-of-its-kind guide to pairing wine with foods from Africa and beyond, including a tour of wine regions across the globe and a foreword by Stephen Satterfield, from renowned Certified Sommelier Cha McCoy.

The wine world often says food and wine that grow together, go together, and that spicy, tangy, salty, and sweet flavors are a challenge to pair. But what about foods from regions where wine grapes aren’t prevalent? What about global cuisines—many of which are outside of Europe—that celebrate heat and tang? Don’t these traditional foods deserve the perfect wine pairing? Cha McCoy, Certified Sommelier and owner of The Communion wine boutique, knows that good foods and wines go together and that the cuisines of Africa, Asia, and the Americas are just as worthy of great pours.

In this first-of-its-kind guidebook, Cha McCoy pairs wines with foods from Africa, Asia, and beyond, blending practical information with a side of aspirational armchair travel. Cha shares her journey of learning and connecting with deep culinary traditions and regional cuisines around the world, diving in by continent and then by region or country, from Africa to the Caribbean, from Latin America to the United States of America, and Asia, and exploring their winemaking regions.

Throughout, you’ll see pairing lists and menus to easily find wines to savor with whatever food you’re craving, whether it’s Moroccan Tagine, Jamaican Jerk Chicken, Mexican Elote, Shrimp Po’ Boy, Peach Cobbler, or Pad Thai. Plus, you’ll find 25 recipes for global fare from renowned chefs and mixologists that represent the heritage of each destination, with food accompanied by suggested wine pairing, to complete the meal.

Whether you’re curious about what to eat on your next trip abroad, want to try out a local restaurant, or are looking to explore a new cuisine to cook at home, Wine Pairing for the People will not only guide you on what to eat but how to best highlight the flavor of your meals with successful pairings. Complete with a foreword by Stephen Satterfield, and stunning photographs, maps, and illustrations throughout, this groundbreaking book boldly declares: Wine is for everyone.

The breathtaking sequel to the #1 New York Times bestseller, Immortal Dark!

 Like all ruinous things, he came from the abyss.
 
Kidan Adane has finally embraced her darkness. She’s killed without remorse, lied, and broken Uxlay University’s most sacred law by inviting elusive rogue vampires, the Nefrasi, into Uxlay.
 
Trapped with a violently unstable vampire, and reeling from her sister’s return, Kidan wields her anger like a weapon. She vows to master her house and protect the sacred artifact hidden inside, even if it means forging an alliance with the depraved leader of the Nefrasi, Samson Sagad--and betraying Susenyos.
 
A dangerous new philosophical text seems to hold the answers and promises the very thing Kidan has lost: control. Even as the dark pages consume her, Kidan knows no soul at Uxlay is trustworthy—least of all Susenyos. For Kidan and Susenyos, the lines of loathing and attraction may blur, but the quest for power rules them both. And neither is willing to surrender.
 
As devastating secrets resurface from the past, Kidan and her sister, June, must finally confront each other and take their rightful places in the looming war.

From the award-winning author of the Jada Jones chapter books comes an illustrated spin-off series perfect for STEM fans!

When Miles and his friend RJ team up for their school's bake sale, they embark on a journey filled with sweet treats, friendship, and a dash of science. Miles is confident that Nana's famous tea cakes will win the prize, but he's feeling the pressure from RJ, who wants to win the prize money to replace his mom's treasured keepsake that he accidentally broke. Through baking mishaps and heartfelt moments, they discover that the true recipe for success lies in honesty, teamwork, and adding a special ingredient—love.

Admire stunning Christian imagery of Ethiopian Orthodox Church art in this lavishly illustrated volume with informative essays and more than 100 images

Ethiopia is one of the world’s oldest Christian civilizations, and its rich artistic history often centers on religious themes and practices. Ranging from the fourteenth to the twentieth centuries, Ethiopian Devotions celebrates an incredible collection of work, from a free-standing basilica carved from living rock, to the tradition of Ethiopic hagiography describing the lives of saints, to diptych and triptych icons of veneration — miniature paintings distinctive for their vibrant colors and soulful eyes.

Insightful essays present Ethiopia’s devotional arts, and place in context the images of illustrated manuscripts, panel paintings, inscribed portraits, murals, crosses, garments, devotional images, prayer staffs, church and monastery architecture, and more, while exploring their connection to liturgical music and literature.

Written by distinguished scholars in the field, the book’s exploration of Ethiopia’s cultural, artistic, and religious traditions is authoritative, and its more than 100 images reveal the depth, beauty and detail embodied in the artwork. Ethiopian Devotions offers readers the opportunity to understand and admire radiant art and learn about its long and remarkable history.

A young woman must shake off a family curse and the widely held belief that she is the reincarnation of her dead cousin in this wickedly funny, brilliantly perceptive novel about love, female rivalry, and superstition from the author of the smash hit My Sister, the Serial Killer (“A bombshell of a book... Sharp, explosive, hilarious'--New York Times)

When Ebun gives birth to her daughter, Eniiyi, on the day they bury her cousin Monife, there is no denying the startling resemblance between the child and the dead woman. So begins the belief, fostered and fanned by the entire family, that Eniiyi is the actual reincarnation of Monife, fated to follow in her footsteps in all ways, including that tragic end.

There is also the matter of the family curse: “No man will call your house his home. And if they try, they will not have peace...” which has been handed down from generation to generation, breaking hearts and causing three generations of abandoned Falodun women to live under the same roof.

When Eniiyi falls in love with the handsome boy she saves from drowning, she can no longer run from her family’s history. As several women in her family have done before, she ill-advisedly seeks answers in older, darker spiritual corners of Lagos, demanding solutions. Is she destined to live out the habitual story of love and heartbreak? Or can she break the pattern once and for all, not only avoiding the spiral that led Monife to her lonely death, but liberating herself from all the family secrets and unspoken traumas that have dogged her steps since before she could remember?

Cursed Daughters is a brilliant cocktail of modernity and superstition, vibrant humor and hard-won wisdom, romantic love and familial obligation. With its unforgettable cast of characters, it asks us what it means to be given a second chance and how to live both wisely and well with what we’ve been given.

Two dead princesses must find true love's kiss to bring them back to life in this heart-stopping romantic fantasy debut. For fans of Cinderella Is Dead and Girl, Serpent, Thorn.

Amala has spent her whole life trying to be the perfect princess: delicate, quiet, obedient. But when she’s murdered on the night of her wedding, her story is cut short before it begins.

Kha’dasia has been told her whole life that she is too rough, too loud, too much. She’s no ordinary princess but a ruthless warrior on a quest to fulfill her late brother’s dying wish. Except she dies before reaching her destination.

When both girls wake up in a cursed forest, the gods offer them a second chance at life—if they can find true love’s kiss. But there’s a catch, the gods warn. While the right kiss will save you, the wrong kiss will kill you.

On their journey, the princesses must overcome challenges that force them to face the truth of their lives…and their deaths. And as Amala and Kha’dasia grow closer, they can’t help but wonder if true love has been standing right in front of them all along.

TWENTY-FIFTH ANNIVERSARY EDITION

The acclaimed collection of Black photography, now featuring more than one hundred photographs from twenty-first-century artists, fundamentally redefines our understanding of American history.

“If a picture truly is worth a thousand words, then Deborah Willis has given us nothing less than an epic history of Homeric proportions. Taken together, Willis’s magnificent gathering of images accompanied by her powerful narrative overturns many common ideas about black life during the last century and a half, and in so doing rewrites American history.”―Robin D. G. Kelley, from the Foreword

Originally published in 2000, Reflections in Black was the first single-volume work to collect the images of leading African American photographers―from the daguerreotype to the digital age. Through its sheer power and inherent beauty, Deborah Willis’s groundbreaking assemblage of photographs of African American life from 1840 to the present triumphantly celebrated family, endurance, and spirituality over the last two centuries as it upended stereotypes and rewrote American history. Aware that so much has changed since 2000, Willis―a world-renowned photographer, curator, and author―has now created a breathtaking twenty-fifth anniversary edition, juxtaposing hundreds of images that appeared in the original edition with 130 new ones.

As the photographic panorama unfolds, we are immersed in hugely moving glimpses of African American life, from the last generation of enslaved people to the urban pioneers of the great migrations of the 1920s, from the rare antebellum daguerreotypes of freemen to the courtly celebrants of the Harlem Renaissance, and from civil rights activists to the postmodern photographic artists of the digital age. Each photograph suggests an astonishing, often spellbinding story. Augustus Washington’s mid-nineteenth-century portraits of key abolitionist figures, for example, offer a seemingly calm window into an era known for its violence. A startling suite of J. P. Ball photographs depicts the life, death, and burial of a Black man hanged for murder in the Montana Territory. Documenting a vibrant family life and a nascent Black middle class as well as Black tenant farmers and educators, the book features James VanDerZee’s famous shot of Marcus Garvey in a Universal Negro Improvement Association parade; Addison N. Scurlock’s dignified portraits of Black intellectuals, artists, and musicians; and John W. Mosley’s World War II–era image of a young drum majorette in an Elks parade in Philadelphia. Reflections in Black also includes a stunning array of celebrity images, among them Booker T. Washington, Langston Hughes, Gladys Bentley, W. E. B. Du Bois, James Baldwin, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, John Coltrane, Billie Holiday, and a veiled Coretta Scott King, now accompanied in this edition by Michelle Obama, the Roots, and Angela Davis.

This enhanced volume, with a new foreword from Robin D. G. Kelley and a coda from Kalia Brooks, once again affirms the power of photography to reconfigure our conception of Black life in the African diaspora and American history. Featuring the works of photographers such as Albert Chong, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Lorna Simpson, Allison Janae Hamilton, Renee Cox, Carrie Mae Weems, Andre D. Wagner, and Hank Willis Thomas, this new edition is dedicated to the artists who stretch the definition of photography, creating pieces more akin to multimedia and conceptual art. Written and curated during the COVID-19 pandemic and in the aftermath of the brutal killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and Tony McDade, the images that follow serve as a visual response to these unthinkable experiences as well as to the beauty of life.

Exceptionally handsome and historically consequential, Reflections in Black is not only the rare volume that can be given as a gift on any occasion but a work so significant that it has the power to reconfigure the imagination. This anniversary edition demands to be included in every American’s library as an essential part of our country’s heritage.

544 photographs

Caldecott Honorees Jarrett and Jerome Pumphrey deliver heart, hope, and holiday cheer in this magical companion to The Old Truck and The Old Boat.

On winter nights, an old sleigh delivers firewood, bringing warmth and light to a small town. But small towns get bigger and families grow. When the old sleigh is overwhelmed, a new sled and a new generation carry on the custom and ensure the town is warm and bright.

This enchanting picture book from the creators of the acclaimed The Old Truck celebrates tradition, community, and simple acts of giving.

full-color throughout

Fiery, funny, inviting and digressive, Sonny Simmons' memoir is a long overdue celebration of the famed New York free jazz pioneer

Though his years in the New York free-jazz scene of the sixties cemented his reputation as "one of the most forceful and convincing composers and soloists in his field," saxophonist Sonny Simmons (1933–2021) was nearly forgotten by the '80s, which found him broke, heavily dependent on drugs and alcohol, and separated from his wife and kids. "I played on the streets from 1980 to 1994, 365 days a year," Simmons tells jazz historian and biographer Marc Chaloin. "I would go to North Beach, and I'd sleep in the park. The word got around town that Sonny is a junkie, really strung out."
The resurrection of Simmons' career―upon the release of his critically acclaimed Ancient Ritual (Qwest Records) in 1994―has become a modern legend of the genre. In the last two decades of his musical career, Simmons broke through to a new echelon of recognition, joining the pantheon of great innovators and masters of the music. But to this day he remains an undersung figure. Here, in the first ever book dedicated to his life, Simmons recounts his childhood in the backwoods of Louisiana, his adolescence in the burgeoning Bay Area jazz scene and his star-studded life in New York playing alongside the greats.

A life-affirming novel of family, mending, and how we learn to love, from the award-winning Bryan Washington.

In Tokyo, the son works as an English tutor, drinking his nights away with friends at a gay bar. He’s entangled in a sexual relationship with a married man, and while he has built a chosen family in Japan, he is estranged from his family in Houston, particularly his mother, whose preference for the son’s oft-troubled homophobic brother, Chris, pushed him to leave home. Then, in the weeks leading up to Christmas, ten years since they’ve last seen each other, the mother arrives uninvited on his doorstep.

Separated only by the son’s cat, Taro, the two of them bristle against each other immediately. The mother, wrestling with memories of her youth in Jamaica and her own complicated brother, works to reconcile her good intentions with her missteps. The son struggles to forgive. But as life begins to steer them in unexpected directions― the mother to a tentative friendship with a local bistro owner, and the son to cautiously getting to know a new patron of the bar―the two of them begin to see each other more clearly. Sharing meals and conversations and an eventful trip to Nara, both mother and son try the best they can to define where “home” really is―and whether they can find it even in each other.

Written with understated humor and an open heart, moving through past and present and across Houston, Jamaica, and Japan, Bryan Washington’s Palaver is an intricate story of family, love, and the beauty of a life among others.

Two siblings investigate the murder of a friend only to unearth even more deadly mysteries in their small town in this page-turning young adult thriller from the acclaimed author of Their Vicious Games.

When Mikky Graves left his small, stifling hometown of Prophets Lake to live with his estranged mother, he thought nothing could ever make him return for good.

Until his sister Kyla’s best friend, Erin, is murdered.

Mikky never worried about leaving Kyla behind at their family-owned funeral home so long as she had Erin. But when Mikky heads home, determined to help Kyla grieve, the sister he encounters barely resembles the one he remembers. Mikky decides, then and there, to do the one thing that seems even more impossible than returning: stay.

As Kyla spirals further into her rage and secrets, Mikky realizes the only thing that can help his sister is finding the truth about who killed Erin. But the more he investigates, the further he’s pulled into other ugly mysteries of Prophets Lake and the beauty brand that is its lifeblood. The town’s rot runs deep, and everyone has something to hide. Perhaps no one more than Kyla herself.

WINNER OF THE EISNER AWARD • The first comic ever created by African Americans, for African Americans.

Three quarters of a century ago, Orrin C. Evans lead a team of cartoonists to create the first comic book anthology of original Black characters created by Black talent, with the expressed purpose of entertaining while rejecting harmful stereotypes and pushing boundaries in the industry. This was only 8 years after Action Comics #1, 6 years after Captain America #1 and a whole 19 years before Black Panther hit the pages of Fantastic Four.

All-Negro Comics #1 should be among those revered moments in comic book history, but the original print run was quickly removed from newsstands and faded into obscurity, remaining largely unknown for 75 years. . . until now.

All-Negro Comics 75th Anniversary Edition (an Eisner Award-winning collection) preserves that history for generations to come, containing All-Negro Comics #1, in full and digitally remastered for clarity, several essays for historical context and contemporary reflection, as well as new stories by Black writers and artists of today, featuring the original characters.

This award-winning volume includes:

• The complete single issue from 1947, digitally remastered! Consistent colors, crisp text, and no damage!
• Contemporary comics and prose stories featuring the All-Negro Comics characters by notable Black creators of today
• Brand new essays that provide historical and cultural context to deepen your reading experience
• A discussion guide and resource list

A stunning, poetic debut picture book from Pasha Westbrook about honoring one’s roots and the unbreakable bond of familial love, brought to life with enchanting illustrations by Madelyn Goodnight.

Father braids my hair, just like his,

scented of coconut oil, the familiar tug of fingers on my scalp,

love in every twist...

As a young girl’s father lovingly yet painstakingly braids her hair, he weaves a story about the strength and resilience of their ancestors, Freedmen who walked the Trail of Tears from Mississippi to Oklahoma.

In this enchanting picture book, past and present come together in a tale about endurance, history, and love. With beautiful, sweeping illustrations by Madelyn Goodnight and debut author Pasha Westbrook's lyrical writing, Braided Roots tenderly explores the unwavering love between a father and daughter.

On Saturday walks with her grandfather, a young girl connects with her Cabo Verdean heritage while learning about the true meaning of home in this moving debut picture book.

Papa always speaks of someday bringing his granddaughter back home to Cabo Verde. But the young girl has never set foot on their ancestral island’s faraway shores. And each time Papa urges her to speak Kriolu, the Portuguese creole native to the West African country, the girl’s tongue betrays her, and she stumbles over her own words. If she can’t even get the language right, can her grandfather’s home ever truly be hers, too?

But each Saturday afternoon when she helps guide her sight-impaired grandfather through their close-knit Massachusetts community, the girl swears she can smell, hear, feel Kriolu. And each Saturday she comes closer to discovering where home truly lies.

Longtime NBC News reporter Char Adams writes a deeply compelling and rigorously reported history of Black political movements told through the lens of Black-owned bookstores, which have been centers for organizing from abolition to the Civil Rights Movement to Black Lives Matter.

In Black-Owned, Char Adams celebrates the living history of Black bookstores. Packed with stories of activism, espionage, violence, community, and perseverance, Black-Owned starts with the first Black-owned bookstore, which an abolitionist opened in New York in 1834, and after the bookshop’s violent demise, Black book-lovers carried on its cause. In the twentieth century, civil rights and Black Power activists started a Black bookstore boom nationwide. Malcolm X gave speeches in front of the National Memorial African Book Store in Harlem—a place dubbed “Speakers’ Corner”—and later, Black bookstores became targets of FBI agents, police, and racist vigilantes. Still, stores continued to fuel Black political movements.

Amid these struggles, bookshops were also places of celebration: Eartha Kitt and Langston Hughes held autograph parties at their local Black-owned bookstores. Maya Angelou became the face of National Black Bookstore Week. And today a new generation of Black activists is joining the radical bookstore tradition, with rapper Noname opening her Radical Hood Library in Los Angeles and several stores making national headlines when they were overwhelmed with demand in the Black Lives Matter era. As Adams makes clear, in an time of increasing repression, Black bookstores are needed now more than ever.

Full of vibrant characters and written with cinematic flair, Black-Owned is an enlightening story of community, resistance, and joy.

A clinical psychologist tells his story of navigating the field of psychology as a gay Black man.

In How I Know White People Are Crazy and Other Stories, Dr. Jonathan Lassiter pulls back the curtain on the mental health system and reveals the hurdles that Black psychologists and students are forced to endure in the field. He tackles how white ideology has harmed Black patients and how it dominates America’s mental health practices. 

As a Black gay man working as a psychologist under culturally insensitive supervisors and colleagues in America, he grows more frustrated with the exclusive talk of Sigmund Freud, and the narrowness of psychology study, with no one like him to vent to. All this takes a mental and physical toll on him.   

Using his expertise in research, his own therapy, and keeping a healthy dose of hip-hop/R&B music in his ears, Dr. Lassiter discovered a way where we can center culture in our healing. Through a series of essays, he demands that the lived and cultural experiences of people of color, LGBTQ+, and disabled communities are made a part of psychology practices so that we can understand, live in, and navigate this frustrating world.

This thought provoking, funny, and searing indictment of the mental health system for patients, students, and professionals alike will leave you thinking differently about the psychologists in your life.

From an award-winning historian of Black radical politics comes the definitive biography of Queen Mother Audley Moore—mother of modern Black Nationalism and trailblazer in the fight for reparations

“Queen Mother is a monumental achievement, a rendering worthy of the great Audley Moore herself.”—Jelani Cobb, Dean of the Columbia School of Journalism

In the world of Black radical politics, the name Audley Moore commands unquestioned respect. Across the nine decades of her life, Queen Mother Moore distinguished herself as a leading progenitor of Black Nationalism, the founder of the modern reparations movement, and, from her Philadelphia and Harlem homes, a mentor to some of America's most influential Black activists.

And yet, she is far less remembered than many of her peers and protégés—Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X, and Muhammad Ahmad, to name just a few—and the ephemera of her life are either lost or plundered. In Queen Mother, celebrated writer and historian Ashley D. Farmer restores Moore's faded portrait, delivering the first ever definitive account of her life and enduring legacy.

Deeply researched and richly detailed, Queen Mother is more than just the biography of an American icon. It's a narrative history of 20th-century Black radicalism, told through the lens of the woman whose grit and determination sustained the movement.

Enter a new world of romantic fantasy from award-winning author N.E. Davenport—a journey of powerful magic, enemies-to-lovers, and political intrigue—as a warrior-princess and a vengeful king from rival fae courts form a fierce alliance to take down a merciless despot.

Princess of the Aether Dominion, Kadeesha wants nothing to do with fae politics. She is a warrior, first and foremost, and believes her greatest strength is leading her squadron of elite winged serpent flyers to protect her homeland. But bound since infancy to be betrothed to the Hyperion High King, ruler of all Dominions, she has no choice but to do what men have chosen for her.

Repulsed by the idea, she decides to spend one last night of freedom—in the arms of a dangerous stranger who takes her to sexual heights she’s never experienced before…but who is only using Kadeesha to set a trap for the High King.

For the High King and the kings of his six Dominions were responsible for the decimation of the Apollyon Court, and its new king, Malachi, wants his pounds of flesh.

On Kadeesha’s wedding day, Malachi and his special forces attack. Her father is killed, and Malachi wounds the High King, ultimately taking Kadeesha as hostage back to his land.

But she is no true hostage. The two form a pact: she will help lure the High King so Malachi can kill him once and for all, and he in turn will not harm Kadeesha or the Aether people. And as much as Kadeesha hates politics, she is now the Queen of her folk. Fae bonds are unbreakable…and so, perhaps, is the attraction Kadeesha and Malachi feel for each other. For even as they must publicly display their connection to provoke the High King’s jealousy, they struggle to resist the powerful allure between them in order to achieve their ultimate goals.

NAACP nominee and USA Today bestselling author Beverly Jenkins celebrates her beloved Blessings series with a heartwarming novel set in Henry Adams, Kansas.

“If you haven’t yet gotten your hands on [this] author’s work, you should do so immediately.”—Shondaland

Tamar July, town matriarch of Henry Adams, KS, is being haunted by dreams of her humiliating wedding day, sixty years ago, when she discovered her intended, Joel Newton, was already married. The truth left her furious, heartbroken, and carrying a child, her son Malachi “Mal” July. Why are these dreams coming to her now? And is the great horned owl perched on her backyard shed somehow connected? When Joel’s legitimate son comes to Henry Adams wanting to meet his half-brother, Mal, Tamar must deal with her past, her anger, and explore what it means to truly forgive.

Tamar isn’t the only one being tested. Teenager Devon July wants to be anyone but himself. When he first arrived in Henry Adams, as an eight-year-old foster child, he wanted to be a preacher. Then, to be like his adopted brother, Amari. Now, he’s decided to be a variant of James Brown—wig included—rather than who he really is, a boy who lost his beloved grandmother and is the son of a mentally challenged woman. Will Tamar be able to guide his spirit quest and place him on the road to finally being at peace within himself?

As the big August 1st celebration nears, town owner Bernadine Brown has a lot on her plate, chief among them, what to do with former mayor Riley Curry’s monstrous tribute to his hog Cletus. There are no secrets in Henry Adams, but there’s never a dull moment either.

The first book from artist Danielle Mckinney, featuring 50 prompts for self-reflection written by her mother and a 44-page journal for the reader to respond

Danielle Mckinney is a rising star in the art world. Her tender, intimate representations of Black women at rest have garnered her a broad and devoted following. 

This innovative debut book is a mother-daughter collaboration: 50 of Mckinney’s paintings appear in dialogue with journal prompts written by the artist’s mother, Barbara Mckinney, an educator who embraces the art of creative expression. Journal pages in the back of the book offer readers a chance to write out their responses to the prompts, inspiring a meditative practice. 

Beautifully designed and produced, Danielle Mckinney: Beyond the Brushstroke draws new inspiration from the work of this fresh voice in contemporary American art.

A profound and unparalleled literary voice, Zadie Smith returns with a resounding collection of essays

In the past two decades, few writers have mastered the craft and art of the essay in the way that Zadie Smith has. Her writing, at once an occasion for personal reckoning and communal reflection, studies the fault lines that divide us and consistently finds grounds for solidarity and compassion.

This eagerly awaited new collection brings Smith’s dexterity as an essayist to bear on a range of subjects that have captured her attention in recent years. Organized in five thematic sections—eyeballing, considering, reconsidering, mourning, and confessing—she unspools intimate dialogues with various sources of inspiration. She takes an exhilaratingly close look at artists Toyin Ojih Odutola and Kara Walker. She invites us along to the movies in her review of Tár, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, and to her desk while researching the Tichborne trial and writing her New York Times bestselling novel The Fraud. She asks us to take another look at Flannery O'Connor and to mourn with her the passing of writers Joan Didion, Martin Amis, Hilary Mantel, Philip Roth, and Toni Morrison. And she shows us once again in Dead and Alive her unrivaled ability to think through, critically and humanely, some of the most urgent preoccupations of our troubled times.

With an eye toward the past and the present, Smith examines what it means to identify with our contemporary world and the history that frames it.

CNN’s Abby Phillip, a triumphant new look at Jesse Jackson’s presidential campaigns of the 1980s and how they changed Black political power

“A joyful, rich, must-read biography of a politician whose flaws and gifts were in constant, intense competition.” ―Jake Tapper

Jesse Jackson, the civil rights leader, activist, raconteur, and political candidate, finally gets a book worthy of his stature courtesy of CNN anchor Abby Phillip.

Focusing on his presidential runs in 1984 and, especially, 1988, Phillip highlights how Jackson built an unlikely coalition that showed how Black political power could be consolidated. His experience working under Martin Luther King; his organizing the SLCC’s Operation Breadbasket in Chicago and beyond; and his roots in the deep South combined into two astonishingly impactful presidential campaigns. Appealing to the working people of urban enclaves like that of Chicago, young people on college campuses, and Black people across the South, he created the modern Democratic coalition―one that has been used by all major Democrats seeking national success from Obama to Biden to Harris.

With her expert reporting, natural storytelling skills, and a story so full of humanity, politics, and hope, Abby Phillip has written a rousing popular history that sheds new light on an American icon.