An exploration of how African American innovators and artists—whose impact and financial value in American music, movies, and TV is disproportionately greater than their numbers—have fought for and often won the rights to own and benefit from their own work.

When we think about the things that have barred success for African Americans, intellectual property law is hardly the first thing that comes to mind, if we even think of it all. We certainly don’t think of it as the launching pad for building generational wealth in the Black community, so it follows that we don’t see our favorite pop stars as revolutionary race warriors.

African American artists have finally, belatedly, come to be the owners of their art and beneficiaries of the money their art makes, after centuries of producing life-changing art. There were hundreds and thousands of Bessie Smiths before we ever got Beyoncé or Kendrick Lamar.

Lisa E. Davis, one of the foremost entertainment attorneys in the country, traces the epic journey Black Americans have been on, from being claimed as property to claiming the benefits of intellectual property. As she notes, “Under slavery, our minds were always free, but there was no profit from what our minds created.”

Beginning in the 18th century with the drafting of the Constitution and ending in the 21st century with a warning about the role technology will play in creative industries, Our Minds Were Always Free tells the story of the indelible legacy of Black American genius and the struggle to receive the credit and the profit that they deserved.

Two cheerleaders find themselves inconveniently tumbling head over heels for each other in this satirical, sapphic teen rom-com that’s Bring It On meets She Drives Me Crazy.

Oak Haven High doesn’t have cheerleaders—it has queerleaders.

It’s a fun coincidence that every new varsity cheerleader since Davie Cathee took the squad by storm three years ago is—or soon comes out as—queer.

But when a rumor sparks that this season, newly minted captain Davie has been specifically recruiting queer members only, Davie is accused of “discrimination” against straight students. She’s given an ultimatum: recruit a straight athlete for the team or the funding for their competitive cheer season will take a major tumble.

Enter Kendall Hayes, the edgy, mysterious new girl. When Davie sees that Kendall has a boyfriend, she quickly convinces her to join the squad. Problem solved.

Until she finds out that Kendall’s actually bisexual…and newly single.

Now Kendall and Davie are faced with having to keep those details under wraps until nationals, which only gets more complicated when they start falling hard and fast for each other. Can Kendall go back in the closet long enough to save the squad? Or will Davie find the courage to love her new crush out loud, even if it might mean the end of the queerleaders?

A magical girl-gone-bad and a renegade mech pilot must stay on a date forever, even if it means destroying the world. Don't you want to help them?

A Ms. Magazine Most Anticipated Feminist Book of 2026 • A them Most Anticipated LGBTQ+ Book of 2026

"Delicious, insane, intoxicating." —Maya Deane, author of Wrath Goddess Sing

"This Is How You Lose the Time War but on crack." —Jace Molloy

Acrasia is in the ultimate long-distance relationship: with Opus Zhao, a man from another universe. She was a trans girl who was also an intergalactic moth-goddess. He was a trans guy who piloted a giant robotic tiger. They hated each other, then fell in love, then their universes moved apart. Now, years later, he's turned up in her dimension again. What won’t she do to keep him there? 

Combining Sailor Moon, Sex and the City, and House of Leaves, this riotous enemies-to-lovers romantasy roars off the page in the genre-exploding, galaxy-spanning, quick-quipping retro nostalgia futuristic thrill ride of a lifetime. Give in, succumb (you know you want to) to the unstoppable world of Plastic, Prism, Void.

Powerful self-transformation practices for navigating an increasingly uncertain world inspired by Malcolm X’s final years, written by his daughter, Ilyasah Shabazz.

When Malcolm X left the Nation of Islam and set out on a pilgrimage to Mecca in 1964, he did more than cross geographic borders–he transformed his vision of faith, justice, and freedom. In Malcolm in the Desert, his daughter Ilyasah Shabazz invites us to walk beside him on that journey of spiritual transformation. In retracing his steps, she helps us see how the work of changing the world so often begins within. 

In Malcolm in the Desert, Shabazz reframes pilgrimage as a modern practice. She extracts keen lessons from her father’s life and legacy that show us the value of slowing down, listening deeply, and remembering who we truly are. Shabazz calls us to respond to crisis with courage, to meet grief with love, to rediscover faith as a creative force for change, and to dream in more revolutionary colors. These pages paint a new picture of Malcolm X through compassionate prose and galvanizing historical insight that shine alongside Jungian, Buddhist, and Islamic principles and wisdom from leading poets and scholars. Shabazz ties it all together  with simple practices to help us answer three central questions: Who are you? What do you care about? What is yours to do?

Malcolm in the Desert reveals the human heart of a legend. It is a reminder of the outer challenges we all face and the inner work it takes to be a light in an unstable world.  It is both a daughter’s offering to her father’s legacy and a compassionate guide for anyone seeking direction through the deserts of their own becoming.

This emotional and lyrical picture book by acclaimed poet Zetta Elliott celebrates the importance of Juneteenth as well as the resilience of Black families and the power of community--featuring stunning illustrations from Caldecott Honoree Noa Denmon.

Black child
you were birthed from a
dark
jeweled expanse
infinite and vast
but holy as the womb

Never forget it was HOPE that birthed you ...

From birth to beyond, from slavery to freedom, and from generation to generation, this powerful and evocative book shows the breadth and depth of Black history--from the creative duo behind A Place Inside of Me: A Poem to Heal the Heart, which won a Caldecott Honor.

An urgent and unforgettable work of magical realism following a young man coming of age in rural West Africa as he bears witness to the violence, upheaval, and hope in a rapidly changing society

In a drought-stricken Igbo village, young Ekwe grows up haunted by owls, myths, and the boundaries of a world too small to contain his restless spirit. After touching a forbidden leaf that his father warns will trap him in astral planes, he is swept into a journey that will carry him across Nigeria, through savannas, deserts, and conflict zones, and into the heart of a nation’s unraveling.

Taken in by Danjuma, a gentle Fulani cowherd with a sprawling family and an instinct for danger, Ekwe enters a world of cattle herding, migration, and precarious survival. As insurgents tear through northern towns and tribal wars erupt in the Middle Belt, Danjuma leads his family on an epic pastoral flight southward, seeking safety in a country where no place is truly safe. Along the way, Ekwe witnesses birth and burial, kindness and betrayal, and the fragile alliances that form between strangers bound by necessity.

But violence follows them like a shadow, and the owls—symbols of myth, menace, and prophecy—perch over every new beginning. Back in his own village, Ekwe’s twelve-year-old sister is pressured to marry a wealthy adult suitor. Ekwe becomes obsessed with how much their lives would improve if she married this man, but Oyibo, stubborn and proud, resists the path that is laid out for her. Meanwhile, simmering tensions between herders and farmers threaten to ignite, forcing Ekwe to confront the truth of where he belongs.

Sweeping, immersive, and fiercely humane, A Siege of Owls traces a child’s odyssey across a fractured landscape, weaving folklore with the stark realities of insurgency, displacement, and the longing for home. It is a story of two families—one lost, one gained—bound together by fate, resilience, and the dangerous hope that somewhere, peace still exists.

Centering Black culture and community for liberating, anti-racist therapeutic practice.

This innovative book lays out the journey of family therapist Makungu Akinyela in developing testimony therapy―a healing practice rooted in Black cultural traditions of testifying and storytelling. This book argues that traditional Eurocentric approaches to therapy often perpetuate colonial oppression in the lives of Black clients, and that decolonizing mental health requires centering African American cultural knowledge, history, and community.

Drawing from thinkers from the Black radical critical tradition like Frantz Fanon and W. E. B. Du Bois, Dr. Akinyela frames testimony therapy as a narrative practice grounded in Ubuntu (the African communal self) and the oral traditions of African diasporic peoples. Testimony Therapy maps out theory, practices, and supervision approaches that help therapists support clients in resisting internalized racism, reclaiming self-definition, and nurturing liberated Black identities. Ultimately, this work is a call for Black therapists and clients to engage therapy as cultural resistance―a pathway to repair our souls and build collective freedom beyond Eurocentric limitations.

When Artie Howell moves with his wife back to her sleepy hometown, he must protect their son Nicky from the skeletons coming out of the closets from both of their pasts

WHEN THE HOWELL FAMILY MOVES INTO A HOUSE on Heckler Lane, it causes quite a stir around the small town of Sunny Cove, Pennsylvania. Elise Howell, a well-known cardio surgeon, has returned home after fifteen years to fill her recently deceased mother’s position at Sunny Cove General Hospital. In a town this size, it’s big news. But it’s Elise’s new husband, Artie, who has the whole town talking.

Artie Howell is a man who always seems to be wearing a smile. He’s an accomplished crime fiction writer, a soccer dad to their young son Nicky, and he volunteers his weekends teaching creative writing to youths in the local detention center. When they first arrived at Heckler Lane, the Howells had seemed like a wholesome American family. Then came the murders.

A nun turning up missing from the Convent of St. Mary becomes the first in a string of unexplained tragedies that have befallen the town. Tragedies that all seem to be tied to scenes from Artie’s novels. The writer now finds himself as the prime suspect in an investigation that threatens to not only tear apart his family, but the entire town of Sunny Cove.

For readers of Raina Telgemeier and Jerry Craft comes a fresh, funny kids’ graphic novel series about three problem-solving besties and their humorous money-making schemes.

Electric James, or Lex, as his friends call him, is finally turning ten, and that means one thing: he's getting a phone! And with the hottest phone on the market—the Apollo XL—he’s sure to become the coolest kid at Roberto Clemente Elementary School. But when his parents break the news that the Apollo XL is way out of their price range, Lex is crushed.

Luckily, he has his best friends DJ and Cass. Together, they’re the Brainstormerz—and they’ve never met a problem they couldn’t solve! All they need to do now is figure out how to raise the money for the phone themselves. How hard could it be? 
 
From the talented trio of New York Times bestselling author Kwame Alexander, Cassidy Dyce, and Eisner winning cartoonist Rashad Doucet, comes a hilarious and electrifying story about friendship, creativity, and the power of teamwork.

Using the head as a site of investigation, Basquiat's frenetic drawings of faces are at once immediate and contemplative

Between 1981 and 1983, Jean-Michel Basquiat made between 50 and 100 drawings of heads. Working with oil stick on paper, he created a series far removed from his public paintings and collages filled with words and symbols―a more concentrated, private study whose pieces are rarely exhibited and seldom offered for sale. Stripped of external references, they read as intimate meditations on identity, perception and the fragile balance between presence and disappearance.
Bringing this exceptional group together for the first time in decades in an oversize folio, Headstrong sheds new light on a lesser-known aspect of Basquiat's practice. Essays by Pulitzer Prize–winning author Hilton Als and artists including George Condo and Julie Mehretu explore the drawings' formal invention and psychological intensity, showing how Basquiat transformed the head into a vessel for everything he was thinking and feeling―a space where imagination, history and lived experience converge.
Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960–88) is one of the most successful Black visual artists in history, despite his brief career. He emerged on the New York City arts scene in the late 1970s and quickly skyrocketed to international fame, becoming one of the most important artists of his generation. Basquiat's work and legacy continue to influence popular culture, especially art, music and fashion.

We. Do. Not. Care.

If you have a she-shed and no longer care about bras that fit, peeing a little bit when you laugh, or plucking the 3 new chin hairs that sprouted overnight, then welcome to the club – the We Do Not Care Club (WDNC). You're now a card-carrying member with an exclusive invite to the biggest hormonal party in town. This coloring book is for all of the fed-up Sisters in perimenopause, menopause, and beyond. Grab your fan, take the night off from cooking dinner (they know where the kitchen is!), and find some colored pencils in that junk drawer you no longer care about. It’s time to sit back and color with this sanity-saving coloring book, featuring:

* 40 cozy, hand-drawn illustrations showing the things we no longer care about (from paper thin gowns at the gynecologist to doom scrolling at 3:26 am)
* Hilarious scenes to remind you that you're not alone on the Hot Mess Express (we’re in this together, Sisters)
* Individually printed pages to prevent bleed through and images large enough to color without reading glasses (you’re welcome)
* Hours of entertainment to help you relax and unwind (you deserve it!)

Baby loves doing everything with Daddy—from sorting laundry to gardening in the backyard—in this heartwarming picture book about the everyday bond between a dad and his child.

There is all kinds of cleaning to be done around the house, so Daddy needs lots of help. Baby is happy to oblige! But somehow when Baby helps, there ends up being more cleaning left to do than there was at the start. Including cleaning Baby! Luckily this dad has all the love and patience in the world for his little one in this sweet father-child book.

From Christian Robinson, #1 New York Times bestseller, Caldecott Honoree, and one of the most recognizable picture book creators of this generation comes a loving tribute to all kinds of dads.

Dad is strong.
Dad is sweet.
Dad dreams of watching you grow…

There are as many ways to be a dad as there are dads in the world. Dad is a big-hearted love letter to all of them, reflecting the range of relationships that dads, both animal and human, have with their little ones.

Dad is destined to be a classic, an evergreen gift for new fathers, and one of those rare picture books that resonates with every reader at any age.

The perfect gift for baby showers, Father’s Day, or all year round!

“Eerie, propulsive, and sumptuous, Honeysuckle and Bone is a trip to Jamaica you won’t soon forget.” —Ayesha Curry

A Goodreads Editors’ Pick · A Kirkus Best of January for Young Readers · An Indie Next Pick

On the run from her own dark secrets, a teen girl becomes the nanny for a prestigious family on their Jamaican estate, where she quickly discovers even paradise may be haunted. Carina Marshall is looking to reinvent herself, and what better place to do it than Jamaica, her mother’s alluring homeland where she conveniently has access to an au pair gig for the wealthy and powerful Hall family. After months of being the target of vicious rumors and hate online, Carina might have found everything she wants at the luxurious Blackbead House: a world of mango trees, tropical breezes, and glamorous parties—and a place to disappear.

Once there, Carina finds herself settling right into her busy, but comfortable, new life. Yes, the family runs a tight ship, and yes, there is some tension between the Halls, but Carina is content flying under the radar and hanging out with her new friends—not least, the handsome and charming Aaron. But when inexplicable things start happening to her in the house, only getting worse each night, Carina realizes that someone, or something, is out to get her. Is it the Halls? The house itself? Or is her own past catching up with her? With Aaron’s help, she must figure out what is haunting her, and fast, before she’s forced out of Blackbead House for good.

Honeysuckle and Bone is a deliciously atmospheric and utterly spooky young adult novel, perfect for fans of She is a Haunting, following an imperfect yet courageous teen as she seeks to remake herself in the homeland she always idealized, discovering that new beginnings don’t always come easy.

This "thoroughly engaging" third novel by the author of Beetlecreek ("[a] quiet masterpiece" —Kirkus Reviews) follows a Black journalist in the 1970s whose bourgeois life is turned upside down by the subject of his writing assignment.

In the midst of the tumultuous 1970s, Edwards, a freelance writer and Black Studies professor at a small college in New York City, is assigned a story for New Black Woman magazine: a profile of Mona Pariss, an aging former singer whose popularity once rivaled Josephine Baker’s. With his creditors at the door, Professor Edwards beats a path to the crumbling Harlem apartment house where Mona Pariss, once the toast of Europe for her singing, now lives in squalid obscurity. As his interviews progress, Edwards is gradually drawn into Mona’s strange world. At the same time, he finds himself entering into an affair with Hortense, a beautiful young assistant at New Black Woman. From revolutionary downtown poetry readings to a hospital bed on the Continent and back, becoming entangled in the lives of both women might turn Edwards’s bourgeois life upside down for good.

"A raw, beautiful story about surviving the impossible and learning how to move forward . . ." —Aiden Thomas, New York Times bestselling author of The Sunbearer Trials

When her mother refuses entry to a stranger named Richard at her father’s funeral, 17-year-old Mira Howard doesn’t understand why. But snooping through her father’s things reveals that Richard was her father’s boyfriend—a boyfriend she never knew about. In fact, Mira never even knew for sure that her dad was gay. Hoping to feel more connected to her late father, Mira reaches out to Richard without telling her mom, who is still angry from the divorce. As Mira and Richard become closer, Mira gains more and more insight into the side of her father that she never got to see.

Grieving that she never got to connect with her dad about their shared queerness, Mira asks that Richard teach her “how to be queer” while she navigates a new crush on her co-worker, which brings her out of her diary and into the real world.

But as Mira grows more confident in herself, she finds it hard to keep her relationship with Richard a secret, questioning why her family never talked about her father’s sexuality in the first place. Soon Mira has to decide if she wants to keep the peace or honor her father’s memory by being her truest self.

An epistolary novel told through diary entries, text messages, and book reviews, IN BETWEEN DAYS is a story about queerness, grief, and families—both ones we are born into and ones we create.

A transformational guide that blends psychology, life coaching, and spiritual insight to help heal past wounds, navigate life’s toughest seasons, and manifest lasting success and inner peace.

Drawing from a decade of experience working with elite clients—from celebrities and athletes to CEOs and pastors—Dr. Bryant reveals a universal truth: success doesn’t shield anyone from trauma, emptiness, or the mental toll of unhealed wounds. In fact, the higher you climb, the more that unresolved pain threatens to undo everything you’ve built. Her unique, psychology-integrated coaching method offers a powerful alternative to traditional therapy—fast, effective, and rooted in both science and spirit.

Dr. Cheyenne Bryant shares her own remarkable journey—from a chaotic, love-filled upbringing in a multigenerational home to building a multimillion-dollar estate where her family now lives and thrives—and opens the gates to both her physical paradise and the spiritual and psychological path that got her there. Inspired by the biblical story of Moses, Live Your Promise reframes the challenging in-between moments of life as sacred territory for transformation. It's not the Promised Land, but the wilderness—where discomfort meets divine growth—that shapes who we become. With tools, strategies, and real-life insights, this book is your guide to navigating that wilderness with courage, clarity, and grace.

Whether you're just starting out or already living your dream, Live Your Promise will help you sustain success, find lasting peace, and manifest the life you were meant to live.

What happens when you return to summer camp only to find that eveything has changed—including yourself? From a rising star cartoonist and bestselling author comes the second book in the Camp Frenemies series, perfect for fans of Guts and Real Friends.

It’s the last day of seventh grade and Beatrice is different than she’d been a year ago. True, she’s wearing mascara and doing her hair differently, but it’s more than that—she doesn’t seem to need her stuffed bunny, Roger, as much. And last year, he went everywhere with her. Everywhere.
When Bea gets to camp and reunites with Virginia and Roxy, they can’t believe how much she’s changed—especially Virginia, who won’t let it go. Can’t a girl grow up a little?! As tensions rise, and friends become frenemies once more, Bea decides that maybe camp isn’t for her. After all, they are the oldest campers—and maybe they shouldn't have even come back. Will they make up by the end of camp, or will frenemies become enemies?
With a pitch-perfect voice and accessible cartoons, don't miss this second installment in the Camp Frenemies graphic novel series from uber talented creator Liz Montague.

Some promises are meant to be broken.

When Josie’s sister Megan spirals into addiction, she makes a sacred vow: if anything happens to Megan, Josie will take care of her young son, Sunny. Three days later, Megan is dead―and Josie’s promise becomes a life sentence.

Haunted by guilt over failing to save her sister, Josie welcomes her troubled nephew into her home. But as the initial shock of grief fades, unsettling questions surface. Megan wasn’t alone on the night she died. Was it really her addiction that killed her, or something more sinister?

As her family begins to fracture, Josie feels her grip on reality slipping. Strange incidents multiply. Items disappear. Whispered conversations stop when she enters rooms. Is Sunny’s presence causing these disturbances, or is Josie’s guilt-ridden grief making her paranoid? When the people she trusted most begin to doubt her stability, she’s forced to question everything she thought she knew.

Because some promises don’t just bind us―they blind us to the truth.

A claustrophobic psychological thriller about family loyalty, deadly secrets and the price of keeping your word, perfect for fans of Lisa Jewell and Shari Lapena.

When Jada Williams is relentlessly pursued by the Debt Police, she is left with no choice but to take down her student loan company with the help of two mall coworkers—from the author of the “lethally witty” (The New York Times Book Review) The Survivalists.

Jada Williams is good at judging people by their looks. From across the mall, she can tell not only someone’s inseam and pants size, but exactly what style they need to transform their life. Too bad she’s no longer using this superpower as a wardrobe designer to Hollywood stars, but for minimum wage plus commission at the Glendale mall.

When Jada is fired yet again, she is forced to outrun the newly instated Debt Police, who are out for blood. But Jada, like any great antihero, is not going to wait for the cops to come kick her around. With the help of two other debt-burdened mall coworkers, she hatches a plan for revenge. Together, the three women plan a heist to erase their student loans forever and get back at the system that promised them everything and then tried to take it back.

“A novel of great fun and unforgettable fury” (Megha Majumdar, bestselling author of A Burning), The Payback is a razor-sharp and hilarious dissection of race, power, and the daily grind, from one of the most original and exciting writers at work today.

A captivating, polyphonic novel of one family’s flight from and return to Iran.

1979. Behsad, a young communist revolutionary, fights with his friends for a new order after the Shah’s expulsion. He tells of sparking hope, of clandestine political actions, and of how he finds the love of his life in the courageous, intelligent Nahid.

1989. Nahid lives her new life in West Germany with Behsad. With their young children, they spend hour after hour in front of the radio, hoping for news from others who went into hiding after the mullahs came to power.

1999. Laleh returns to Iran with her mother, Nahid. Between beauty rituals and family secrets, she gets to know a Tehran that hardly matches her childhood memories.

2009. Laleh’s brother Mo is more concerned with a friend’s heartbreak than with student demonstrations in Germany. But then the Green Revolution breaks out in Iran and turns the world upside down …

A topical, moving novel about revolution, oppression, resistance, and the absolute desire for freedom.

Sports agent Jackie Miles is a petite powerhouse who has built her empire on killer instincts, designer stilettos, and tough skin. Her client roster is legendary, her temper is hotter than Georgia asphalt, and aside from her French bulldog PeeWee and her "boss chick village," she's perfectly content flying solo. Then Antonio Steele walks back into her life, and all hell breaks loose. The towering former football star turned rival agent has always known exactly which buttons to push. Just when Jackie thinks she can handle their explosive chemistry and complicated past, she mysteriously loses her voice. But this isn't ordinary laryngitis; a cryptic stranger's message implies that Jackie must "quiet her tongue and listen with her heart" to lift whatever spell she's under. With a career-defining client trip to Mexico looming, and only the devastatingly handsome Antonio as backup, Jackie must learn to let go-if only she could trust him to catch her. Struck Speechless is book two in the Boss Chicks Village Series, following the hit romcom Losing Sight.

One of the most influential public intellectuals in the world and the architect of the two biggest ideas to reshape the American conversation about fairness offers the intimate story of how her life gave birth to these ideas.

It is not very often that someone comes along and permanently reshapes the way Americans think about two of the most important issues of the day. In this case: race and gender. But that is what Kimberlé Crenshaw did when she articulated two concepts that would forever change national and global debates about equality: intersectionality and critical race theory.

Backtalker is the powerful and intimate story of how a little girl from Canton, Ohio, came up with a new way to look at the world. Crenshaw’s memoir traces the way her lived experience made her see things others didn’t as the daughter of a strong-minded teacher and a pathbreaking public servant, and as the sister of a protective, yet bullying older brother. She starts to talk back, and that backtalking has continued throughout her life. It happens when she is denied a role in the kindergarten school play. When she is escorted to the back door of a private club. When Anita Hill is exiled for testifying against Clarence Thomas. When OJ Simpson goes on trial. When Obama launches My Brother’s Keeper, a movement focused on boys of color only. When the movement against police violence overlooks Black women. Crenshaw is there for all of it.

In the vein of Ta-Nehisi Coates and Bryan Stevenson, Crenshaw evokes each time and place like a gifted novelist with extreme honesty and specificity, making her book a series of awe-inspiring, deep revelations. As a result of her work, Crenshaw has become a force to be reckoned with across America—at schools, in the workplace, at dinner tables, and, of course, in our public square.

“When Miss Brooks. . . writes out of her heart, out of her rich and living background, out of her very real talent, then she induces almost unbearable excitement.” — New York Times

In celebration of the 250th anniversary of the United States, HarperCollins is proud to present this library of American classics drawn from our storied catalog. Selected Poems is the classic volume by the distinguished and celebrated poet Gwendolyn Brooks, winner of the 1950 Pulitzer Prize, and recipient of the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. This compelling collection showcases Brooks's technical mastery, her warm humanity, and her compassionate and illuminating response to a complex world.

By 1963 the civil rights movement was in full swing across the United States, and more and more African American writers were increasingly outspoken in attacking American racism and insisting on full political, economic, and social equality for all. In that memorable year of the March on Washington, Harper & Row released Brooks’s Selected Poems, which incorporated poems from her first three collections, as well as a selection of new poems.

This edition of Selected Poems includes A Street in Bronzeville, Brooks's first published volume of poetry for which she became nationally known and which led to successive Guggenheim fellowships; Annie Allen, published one year before she became the first African American author to win the Pulitzer Prize in any category; and The Bean Eaters, her fifth publication which expanded her focus from studies of the lives of mainly poor urban black Americans to the heroism of early civil rights workers and events of particular outrage—including the 1955 Emmett Till lynching and the 1957 school desegregation crisis in Little Rock, Arkansas.

A perennial New York Times bestseller and enduring classic of modern American culture.

“Each offering from bell hooks is a major event, as she has so much to give us.” ― Maya Angelou

In celebration of the 250th anniversary of the United States, HarperCollins is proud to present this library of American classics drawn from our storied catalog. All About Love is the acclaimed first volume in feminist icon bell hooks' "Love Song to the Nation" trilogy. All About Love reveals what causes a polarized society, and how to heal the divisions that cause suffering. Here is the truth about love, and inspiration to help us instill caring, compassion, and strength in our homes, schools, and workplaces.

“The word ‘love’ is most often defined as a noun, yet we would all love better if we used it as a verb,” writes bell hooks as she comes out fighting and on fire in All About Love. Provocative and intensely personal, renowned scholar, cultural critic and feminist bell hooks offers a proactive new ethic for a society stricken with lovelessness--not the lack of romance, but the lack of care, compassion, and unity. People are divided, she declares, by society’s failure to provide a model for learning to love. 

In this landmark book, bell hooks explores the question “What is love” Her answers strike at both the mind and heart. Disputing that the ideal love is infused with sex and desire, she provides a new path to love that is sacred, redemptive, and healing for individuals and for a nation. All About Love is a powerful, timely affirmation of just how profoundly love and community can change hearts and minds for the better.

One of The Atlantic’s Great American Novels

One of The Center for Fiction's 200 Books That Shaped 200 Years of Literature

"Petry is the writer we have been waiting for; hers are the stories we need to fully illuminate the questions of our moment, while also offering a page-turning good time. Ann Petry, the woman, had it all, and so does her insightful, prescient and unputdownable prose.”―Tayari Jones, New York Times Book Review

In celebration of the 250th anniversary of the United States, HarperCollins is proud to present this library of American classics drawn from our storied catalog. The Street, originally published in 1946 and hailed by critics as a masterwork, is the first novel by a Black woman to sell more than a million copies, and is a haunting story that still resonates today.

The Street tells the poignant, often heartbreaking story of Lutie Johnson, a young Black woman, and her spirited struggle to raise her son amid the violence, poverty, and racial dissonance of Harlem in the late 1940s.

Lutie is confronted by racism, sexism, and classism on a daily basis in her pursuit of the American dream for herself and her son, Bub. Lutie fully subscribes to the belief that if she follows the adages of Benjamin Franklin by working hard and saving wisely, she will be able to achieve the dream of being financially independent.

With an Introduction from New York Times best-selling author Tayari Jones.

* A BEAUTIFUL PACKAGE WITH FLAPS: Featuring French flaps and a unique vivid cover design, each book in the collection is published as a deluxe trade paperback that is a part of a stunning series look.
* HARPER COLLINS AMERICAN CLASSICS: This series includes timeless novels, poetry, children’s books, and groundbreaking nonfiction that has shaped American thought, literature, and identity across generations.
* AMERICA’S PUBLISHER: Since its founding in 1817, no American publisher has been so entwined in the history of American letters. Our books enrich, challenge, and defined the American spirit.
* AMERICA 250: The HarperCollins American Classics arrive in time for America’s 250th anniversary celebrations.

Kausar Khan returns to dispense more vigil-aunty justice in the second installment of the critically acclaimed Detective Aunty series—and this time, the crime Kausar is investigating is dredging up memories she buried long ago . . .

When Kausar Khan moved back to Toronto to be closer to her family, she didn't expect to have another murder investigation on her hands so soon—or really ever. But when a young man named Mateen is found dead in their Golden Crescent neighborhood, and when she learns he was close to her granddaughter, Maleeha, what’s a grandmother to do but try and solve the case?

And it’s not just her heartbroken granddaughter spurring Kausar to find answers; it’s also how the circumstances of Mateen’s death remind her of her own teenage son, Ali, and his mysterious death nearly twenty years before. Kausar knows firsthand what a difference closure can make to a grieving parent—and the more she seeks to find that for Mateen's parents, the more she begins to realize that perhaps it's time she finds closure for herself as well.

As Kausar digs into both Mateen’s and Ali’s cases and her “aunty” skills continue to bring more information to light, she can’t help but wonder if the similarities between the two cases are more than just mere coincidence. But how could two deaths, twenty years apart, possibly be related?

Detective Aunty is determined to find out.

Fair and long-legged, independent and articulate, Janie Crawford sets out to be her own person—no mean feat for a black woman in the '30s. Janie's quest for identity takes her through three marriages and into a journey back to her roots.

Nearly 3 Million Copies Sold · 8 starred reviews · William C. Morris Award Winner · National Book Award Longlist · Printz Honor Book · Coretta Scott King Honor Book · #1 New York Times Bestseller

“Simply beautiful to read. The Hate U Give is an outstanding debut novel and says more about the contemporary black experience in America than any book I have read for years, fiction or non-fiction.” - Alex Wheatle, The Guardian

In celebration of the 250th anniversary of the United States, HarperCollins is proud to present this library of American classics drawn from our storied catalog. A phenomenal #1 bestseller that became a symbol for a searing moment in the fight for justice in America, The Hate U Give is a heartrending, boldly original, unforgettable chronicle of a vital chapter in our nation’s story—and has cemented Angie Thomas’s place as one of her generation’s most important writers.

Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend, Khalil, at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed.

Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil’s name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: What really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr.

But what Starr does—or does not—say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life.

One of The Atlantic’s Great American Novels

“If one had to identify the single most influential shaping force in modern Black literary history, one would probably have to point to Wright and the publication of Native Son.” – Henry Louis Gates Jr.

In celebration of the 250th anniversary of the United States, HarperCollins is proud to present this library of American classics drawn from our storied catalog. When it was first published in 1940, Native Son established Richard Wright as a literary star. In the decades since, Wright's masterpiece—hailed as "a novel of tremendous power and beauty" (Newsweek)—has become a revered classic that remains as timely and relevant today as when it first appeared.

Set in Chicago in the 1930s, Native Son is the story of Bigger Thomas, a young Black man caught in a downward spiral after killing a young white woman in a brief moment of panic. Written with the distinctive rhythm of a modern crime story, this formidable work is both a condemnation of social injustice and an unsparing portrait of the Black experience in America, revealing the tragic effect of poverty, racism, and hopelessness on the human spirit. As Wright explained, "I wrote Native Son to show what manner of men and women our 'society of the majority' breeds, and my aim was to depict a character in terms of the living tissue and texture of daily consciousness."

This edition of Native Son isthe restored text established by the Library of America—the novel as Wright intended it to be published. It also includes an essay by Wright titled, How "Bigger" was Born, along with notes on the text.

Celebrate freedom and exploration with gorgeous illustrations of Black women traveling in style, from Andrea Ballo, the artist behind Coloring with Coco and Coco Michele Illustrations.

Find joy and adventure with an elevated adult coloring book that's all about Black women and their love for travel! Each illustration was created by Andrea Ballo, the artist and influencer behind the popular TikTok account Coloring with Coco. On every page, you'll find spectacular images to color that encourage your love for travel and new experiences!

Stunning illustrations―Color 36 gorgeous illustrations that capture the vibrancy and diversity of Black women.

Get inspired―The artwork in this book is themed around exploration, vacation, and travel! It's an art piece and an experience you can create with your favorite art supplies.

A beautiful gift for you or someone special―This high-quality coloring book for adults features heavy paper, perforated pages, and a thick card stock insert to block color bleed, making it a gorgeous and meaningful gift!

Set off on your next adventure with the Coloring with Coco: Passport to Paradise coloring book.