Pre-Order

Availability

Price

$
$

More filters

  • PRE - ORDER: Tío and Tío: The Ring Bearers

    Ross Mathews & Dr. Wellinthon García-Mathews & Tommy Doyle & Drew Barrymore

    $18.99

    PRE-ORDER. ON SALE DATE: April 15, 2025

    From Ross Mathews (The Drew Barrymore Show and RuPaul’s Drag Race) and his husband, Dr. Wellinthon García-Mathews, comes a heartwarming and humorous tale of love and family as two young boys travel to Mexico to be ring bearers in their uncles’ wedding.

    From Emmy-winning TV host and producer Ross Mathews (The Drew Barrymore Show and RuPaul’s Drag Race) and Dr. Wellinthon García-Mathews comes a heartwarming and humorous tale of family, friendship, and love inspired by their real-life wedding.

    Evan and Andy are excited to visit Mexico for their uncles’ wedding—and their parents are excited that the boys will have a chance to experience the culture, practice their Spanish, and learn responsibility as ring bearers in the ceremony. Once they arrive, Evan and Andy just want to play soccer, swim, and eat all the great food. However, once the festivities are in full swing and the boys witness the love and happiness between their two tíos, they quickly embrace their role in their uncles’ very special day.

    This debut picture book written by Ross Mathews and Dr. Wellinthon García-Mathews, and illustrated by Tommy Doyle, reminds us about the importance of love, family, and embracing one’s cultural identity.

  • PRE - ORDER: The Watkins Book of African Folklore

    Helen Nde

    $19.95

    PRE-ORDER. ON SALE DATE: March 11, 2025

    Combining vivid storytelling, astonishing imagination and careful research, this is the ultimate collection of African folklore, with 50 entertaining tales and commentary from noted folklorist Helen Nde, presented in a beautiful, foiled gift package.

    From creation myths and foundation legends to fascinating stories of human relationships and amusing animal tales, these stories provide a diverse look at the countries and cultures across the African continent. Noted folklorist Helen Nde also provides marvellous context for history and colonial influences for the stories.

    Read 50 stories that take you north to Egypt, west to Sierra Leone, east to Somalia, south to South Africa and many places in-between. Discover the geographical and cultural variety of the continent with stories such as:

    * FROM ALGERIA: "The Story of the First Man and Woman", who meet when they struggle over access to a well, but go on to have 100 children and start the human race.
    * FROM SUDAN: "Okwa and the River Maiden", a tale about the great-grandson of the first man who seeks the river spirit's approval to marry two river maidens, half women and half crocodiles.
    * FROM ZIMBABWE: "The Moon and His Wives", a story about the first man who pleads with the creator to become mortal and go to earth, where the first star becomes his companion.
    * FROM GHANA: "How Goat Caused a War" by tricking the Supreme Being and giving his holy message to the wrong prince.
    * FROM TANZANIA: "The Singing Kaguru Birds", who offer help and riches to poor folk in exchange for a strict rule or even a trick.

    Carefully researched and vividly retold these stories represent a vital and fresh perspective on African Folktales for anyone interested in folktales, mythology and storytelling from around the world.

  • PRE - ORDER: The Tilting House

    Ivonne Lamazares

    $27.00

    PRE-ORDER. ON SALE DATE: July 22, 2025

    Two estranged sisters with a past as complicated as their present acrimoniously reunite in 1990s Cuba to confront the riddle of family amidst the scars of political upheaval

    In the summer of 1993, Yuri, a teenage orphan, lives with her strict, religious Aunt Ruth in a Havana suburb when Mariela, a thirty-four-year-old artist, arrives from the U.S. with a shocking revelation. She claims to be Yuri's sister, insisting that she and Yuri share a mother and that Ruth is nothing more than Mariela's "kidnapper." Mariela has spent the past three decades in American orphanages and has returned to Cuba to reclaim her roots and culture, make art, and perhaps seek vengeance on Ruth for sending her to America through Operation Pedro Pan. Yuri is both fascinated and repulsed by the young, glamourous, and aggrieved Mariela. When Ruth is jailed for unknown charges, Yuri falls further into Mariela's mercurial orbit.

    Through Yuri's reminiscent narration (from Havana, to NYC, to Miami, and back to Havana), The Tilting House explores the riddles of identity and family loyalty, the effects of losing one's mother and motherland, the scars of political and historical upheaval, and an immigrant's complex quest both to return "home" and to be free from the past. Through her long journey, Yuri comes to understand that the past cannot be fully recovered, or fully escaped, and she approaches the possibility of compassion for Mariela, for Ruth, for others, and for herself.

  • PRE - ORDER: The Rainbow Ain't Never Been Enuf: On the Myth of LGBTQ+ Solidarity

    Kaila Adia Story

    $28.95

    PRE-ORDER. ON SALE DATE: May 13, 2025

    A queer Black feminist debunks the myth of rainbow solidarity, repositioning Black and Latinx LGBTQ+ people at the forefront of queer pasts, presents, and futures

    Your favorite Black queer studies professor Kaila Adia Story says the rainbow ain’t never been enough in this introduction to the current state of queer intersectionality, or lack thereof. Story argues that to be queer is to be political, and the carefully glittered façade of solidarity in the pride movement veils dangerous neoliberal ideals of apolitical queer embodiment. The rainbow as a symbol of communal solidarity is a hollow offering when cis white LGBTQ people are allowed to opt out of divesting from white supremacy, misogyny, and transphobia.

    The Rainbow Ain’t Never Been Enuf fills a necessary gap in our understanding of how racism, transphobia, and antiblackness operate in liberal spaces. Black feminist and queer theorist Kaila Adia Story blends analysis, pop culture, and her lived experiences to explore the silencing practices of mainstream queer culture. She touches on cornerstone issues of the movement like

    * the whitewashing of queer history and commodification of pride celebrations
    * the appropriation of the Black and Latinx ball scene and culture
    * the racialized and gendered violence inflicted upon Black trans women
    * the exclusion of the lives and work of activists like Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, Stormé DeLarverie, and CeCe McDonald from queer history
    * the lack of remembrance and respect for the lives of the Black and Lantinx queer and trans people who have always been on the frontlines of queer liberation

    Expanding beyond the classroom, Story utilizes her expertise as a scholar of queer theory to offer readers a comprehensive understanding of how racism operates in these spaces and what we can do to create a more equitable future.

  • PRE - ORDER: The Mighty Miss Malone

    Christopher Paul Curtis

    $8.99

    PRE-ORDER. ON SALE DATE: January 14, 2025

    The dramatic and unforgettable story of a girl and a family caught up in the turbulent days of the Depression from Newbery Medal and Coretta Scott Kind Award-winner Christopher Paul Curtis.

    "We are a family on a journey to a place called wonderful." This is the motto of Deza Malone's family, but the road is getting rocky.

         Deza is the smartest girl in her class, singled out by teachers for a special path in life. But the Great Depression hit Gary, Indiana hard, and there are no jobs for Black men. When her beloved father leaves to find work, Deza, Mother, and her older brother Jimmie go in search of him, and end up in a Hooverville outside Flint, Michigan. While Jimmie's beautiful voice inspires him to leave the camp to be a performer, Deza and Mother continue on, clinging to the hope that they will find Father.

         The twists and turns of the Malone's journey reveal not only the devastation of the Depression but also the enduring strength of family bonds and the mighty heart of young Deza Malone.

  • PRE - ORDER: The Watsons Go to Birmingham--1963

    Christopher Paul Curtis

    $8.99

    PRE-ORDER. ON SALE DATE: January 14, 2025

    During one of the most important times in the civil rights movement, one unforgettable family goes on a road trip in this Newbery and Coretta Scott King Honoree, from author Christopher Paul Curtis, recipient of the Coretta Scott King–Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement.

    When the Watson family—ten-year-old Kenny, Momma, Dad, little sister Joetta, and brother Byron—sets out on a trip south to visit Grandma in Birmingham, Alabama, they don’t realize that they’re heading toward one of the darkest moments in America’s history. The Watsons’ journey reminds us that even in the hardest times, laughter and family can help us get through anything.
     
    "A modern classic." —NPR

    “Marvelous . . . both comic and deeply moving.” —The New York Times

    "One of the best novels EVER." —Jacqueline Woodson, Newbery Honor and National Book Award–winning author of Brown Girl Dreaming
     
    Bonus Content
    • New foreword and afterword from the author
    • Map of the Watsons’ journey
    • Original manuscript pages and letter from the Newbery committee
    • Personal essays celebrating the book’s legacy by award-winning authors: Elizabeth Acevedo, Chris Crutcher, Kate DiCamillo, Varian Johnson, David Barclay Moore, Jason Reynolds, Jerry Spinelli, Vince Vawter, Rita Williams-Garcia, and Jacqueline Woodson

  • PRE - ORDER: The Love Simulation

    Etta Easton

    $19.00

    PRE-ORDER. ON SALE DATE: March 4, 2025

    A passionate vice principal and a guarded science teacher compete for a grand prize, only to realize their budding relationship might be the real jackpot.

    Brianna Rogers has been told a time (or six) she needs to stop jumping into things head first. But when the principal rescinds his approval for a library upgrade, deciding to spend the money on a football field instead, she sees red. Literally. Brianna throws her hat in the ring and joins a team of teachers who will spend their summer in a Mars simulation. As the sister of an astronaut, this should be easy, right? What she didn’t count on was the last-minute addition to the team—Roman Major: science teacher, son of the principal, and too handsome for his own good.

    Roman and Brianna have been hot and cold all year, and living in close quarters intensifies their animosity and attraction. Brianna is sure he’s been sent by his father to sabotage them, foiling their chance at prize money that will cover all of the school’s actual needs. But each day, Roman proves himself to be a dedicated teammate—and Brianna finds herself falling harder and harder. While it’s clear the feeling is mutual, she can’t shake the sense that he’s hiding something. As the simulation nears its end, Brianna realizes she may have to make an impossible choice, between the school she’s dedicated herself to, and the man who has won his way into her heart.

  • PRE - ORDER: The Love Lyric (The Greene Sisters)

    Kristina Forest

    $19.00

    PRE-ORDER. ON SALE DATE: February 4, 2025

    An R&B singer and a corporate executive find love that hits the right notes in this romance by Kristina Forest, USA Today bestselling author of The Partner Plot.

    Iris Greene used to be a woman with a plan. But all of that changed after she met the love of her life at twenty-five, got pregnant and married…and then became a widow and a single mother all in alittle over two years. Now, after years of hustling, Iris is the director of partnerships at a beauty company and raising sweet six-year-old Calla by herself. Despite her busy life, she still can’t help but feel lonely. She just needs to catch her breath—and one night, at her sister’s wedding, when she steps outside to do just that, she sees a certain singer who takes her breath away. . . .

    By all accounts, pop R&B singer Angel Hughes has it made. He’s a successful musician and has just scored a brand ambassador deal with an emerging beauty company. But he’s still not fulfilled; he’s not producing songs he’s passionate about, and there’s a gaping hole in his love life. When he visits the Save Face Beauty office to kickstart his campaign, he’s delighted to see Iris, his stylist’s sister—the beautiful woman he’s secretly had a crush on for years.

    Despite their obvious attraction to each other, they must stay professional throughout the campaign tour—a goal that doesn’t quite pan out. But when it becomes clear their lives aren’t in sync, can they fall back in step to the same rhythm and beat?

    "Kristina Forest’s Green Sisters series blends swoonworthy romantic moments with a healthy dose of sisterly bonding and a dash of glitz and glamor. Each book is a well-rounded treat."—Alexis Daria, bestselling author of You Had Me at Hola

  • PRE - ORDER: The Dream Hotel: A Novel

    Laila Lalami

    $28.00

    PRE-ORDER. ON SALE DATE: March 4, 2025

    From Laila Lalami—the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist and a “maestra of literary fiction” (NPR)—comes a riveting and utterly original novel about one woman’s fight for freedom, set in a near future where even dreams are under surveillance.

    Sara has just landed at LAX, returning home from a conference abroad, when agents from the Risk Assessment Administration pull her aside and inform her that she will soon commit a crime. Using data from her dreams, the RAA’s algorithm has determined that she is at imminent risk of harming the person she loves most: her husband. For his safety, she must be kept under observation for twenty-one days.

    The agents transfer Sara to a retention center, where she is held with other dreamers, all of them women trying to prove their innocence from different crimes. With every deviation from the strict and ever-shifting rules of the facility, their stay is extended. Months pass and Sara seems no closer to release. Then one day, a new resident arrives, disrupting the order of the facility and leading Sara on a collision course with the very companies that have deprived her of her freedom.

    Eerie, urgent, and ceaselessly clear-eyed, The Dream Hotel artfully explores the seductive nature of technology, which puts us in shackles even as it makes our lives easier. Lalami asks how much of ourselves must remain private if we are to remain free, and whether even the most invasive forms of surveillance can ever capture who we really are.

  • PRE - ORDER: The Black Fantastic: 20 Afrofuturist Stories

    andré m. carrington

    $24.95

    PRE-ORDER. ON SALE DATE: February 4, 2025

    A cutting-edge collection of the best short stories in contemporary Afrofuturist fiction—from Hugo, Nebula, and Stoker award-winning Black authors

    20 mind-blowing, horror-strewn, weird, and woke tales celebrate Black identity, community, and imagination

    Black speculative fiction has never been better than it is here and now. On the shoulders of Afrofuturist masters like Octavia E. Butler and Samuel R. Delany and pioneering visionaries before them, a new, abundant, and brilliant generation of contemporary Black authors, some of them just beginning their careers, is conjuring up a very real renaissance.

    Edited by SF-expert andré carrington, and including Hugo, Nebula, and Locus award winners alongside emerging and experimental voices, The Black Fantastic showcases the artistry of these breakout literary stars and celebrates the diversity of their talents.

    Including Afrofuturist science fiction, weird and fantastic tales, horror and the paranormal, apocalyptic lyricism, time travel, superheroes, and more, here are twenty mindblowing, horror-strewn, weird, woke, nerdy, terrifying, liberating, fantastic, utopian, surreal, genre-defying and empowering short stories, all of them worth reading and rereading now and far into futurity.

    Reclaiming histories of racism and oppression and seizing the day, these writers are forging kaleidoscopic new senses of Black identity, community, and imaginative freedom.

  • PRE - ORDER: The Art of Dancehall: Flyer and Poster Designs of Jamaican Dancehall Culture

    Walshy Fire

    $50.00

    PRE-ORDER. ON SALE DATE: April 1, 2025

    A definitive celebration of the distinctive art of poster and flyer design in the highly influential culture of Jamaican dancehall music, by one of the best-known voices in the genre.

    Combining the energy and vibrancy of vernacular Jamaican art with the cultural insight that only original ephemera can bring, the flyers and posters collected in this book are testament to the creativity and spirit behind one of the most influential and enduring cultures in contemporary music.

    Originating in Jamaica in the late 1970s, dancehall music is a club-friendly offshoot of reggae. The genre initially found particular resonance in the Jamaican diaspora and defined the soundsystem cultures that rose to prominence in New York and London in the 1980s and 1990s, which would influence the origins of hip hop. In much the same way that graffiti and paste-ups would for hip hop, the unique style of the artwork, coloring, and lettering of handmade flyers for dancehall nights became a visual language of the culture.

    Drawing on unrivaled private collections from Jamaica, London, New York, and Tokyo, this book is a window onto the colorful and effervescent world of dancehall—at once celebrating the ingenuity and beauty of the DIY flyers themselves, and chronicling the evolution of DJs, records, and venues that made the genre into the musical and cultural phenomenon that continues to captivate audiences to this day.

  • PRE - ORDER: Systemic: How Racism Is Making Us Sick

    Layal Liverpool

    $18.00

    PRE-ORDER. ON SALE DATE: June 17, 2025

    In the spirit of Medical Apartheid and Killing the Black Body; A science-based, data-driven, and global exploration of racial disparities in health care access by virologist, immunologist, and science journalist Layal Liverpool.

    Layal Liverpool spent years as a teen bouncing from doctor to doctor, each one failing to diagnose her dermatological complaint. Just when she’d grown used to the idea that she had an extremely rare and untreatable skin condition, one dermatologist, after a quick exam, told her that she had a classic (and common) case of eczema and explained that it often appears differently on darker skin. Her experience stuck with her, making her wonder whether other medical conditions might be going undiagnosed in darker-skinned people and whether racism could, in fact, make people sick.

    The pandemic taught us that diseases like Covid disproportionately affect people of color. Here, Liverpool goes a step further to show that this disparity exists for all types of illness and that it is caused by racism. In Systemic, Liverpool shares her journey to show how racism, woven into our societies, as well as into the structures of medicine and science, is harmful to our health. Refuting the false belief that there are biological differences between races, Liverpool goes on to show that racism-related stress and trauma can however, lead to biological changes that make people of color more vulnerable to illness, debunking the myth of illness as the great equalizer.

    From the problem of racial bias in medicine where the default human subject is white, to the dangerous health consequences of systemic racism, from the physical and psychological effects of daily microaggressions to intergenerational trauma and data gaps, Liverpool reveals the fatal stereotypes that keep people of color undiagnosed, untreated, and unsafe, and tells us what we can do about it.

  • PRE - ORDER: Sweet Potato Soul Vegan Vibes: 100 Soulful Plant-Based Recipes for Healthy Everyday Meals; A Cookbook

    Jenné Claiborne

    $27.99

    PRE-ORDER. ON SALE DATE: February 4, 2025

    100 vegan recipes that bring plant-based fun to the plate for every meal of the day, from the beloved author of Sweet Potato Soul.

    “Jenné Claiborne transforms divine soul food favorites into nourishing, delicious, and approachable plant-based dishes you’ll want to make on repeat.”—Carleigh Bodrug, New York Times bestselling author of PlantYou

    Jenné Claiborne knows that vegans have more fun. She’s been enjoying the vibrant health, energy, and joy from eating plants—vegan vibes—for more than a decade. In that time, the vegan space has exploded, with fake meats and cheeses, fast foods, and processed treats galore. While exciting, these options don’t tap into the vibrancy of the vegetable world. 

    In Vegan Vibes, Jenné invites you to fall in love with cooking and eating plants, in their delicious diversity. After stints in New York City and Los Angeles, she’s returned to her hometown of Atlanta, Georgia, where she is freshly inspired in her vegan kitchen by the city’s multicultural influences: collard green soup mellowed by miso, sweet potatoes crisped in the air fryer and heated with jerk seasoning, and corn ribs kissed by Korean gochujang sauce. 

    Jenné has transformed her favorite veggies into crowd-pleasing meals that are quick and easy enough for even the most hectic schedule. Vegan Vibes offers 100 dishes that are almost as much fun to make as they are to eat. That means laid-back whole food-based ingredient lists plus straightforward, no-fail techniques. And her unique flair for flavor elevates the simplest dish: a citrus spin on Mushroom Carnitas Tacos, Watermelon Gazpacho for the ultimate refreshing soup, and Magical Hummus packed with umami mushroom flavor. 

    With gorgeous photography for each recipe, Vegan Vibes includes:

    • Super yummy breakfasts: Indian Tofu Scramble, Rose Tahini Granola
    • Killer apps, snacks, and salads: Beet Latkes, Bali Shaved Brussels Salad
    • Comforting soups: Sweet Potato Bisque
    • Hearty entrees: Curried Red Bean Tacos, Korean Pulled Shroom Sandwiches, Black Bean Pizza
    • Perfect beverages: Dirty Candy Sour, Pineapple Rose Sangria
    • Drool-worthy desserts: Miso Caramel Banana Pudding, Cardamom Brown Sugar Pound Cake

    Brimming with unexpected, flavorful dishes, Vegan Vibes is the cookbook that will inspire everyone, vegan or not, to crave more plants.

  • PRE - ORDER: Somadina

    Akwaeke Emezi

    $19.99

    PRE-ORDER. ON SALE DATE: April 15, 2025

    From the National Book Award finalist and author of Pet comes a novel set in a magical West African world, about a teen girl who must save her missing twin while learning to navigate her own terrifying new powers.

    Somadina and her twin brother, Jayaike, are practically the same person: they finish each other's sentences and make each other whole. When the twins come of age, their magical gifts begin to develop, but while Jayaike's powers enchant, Somadina's cause fear to ripple through her town.

    Always an outsider, Somadina now faces blatant--and dangerous--hostility. And things go from bad to worse when her brother—the one person she trusted—vanishes. Somadina knows that no matter the dangers, she must track him down. Even if it means entering the Sacred Forest. Even if it means grueling, otherworldly travel she may not survive. Even if it means finding the hidden places where those closest to the spirit world don't dare to go. Does Somadina have the strength --within both her body and her soul -- for the trying journey ahead?

    National Book Award finalist Akwaeke Emezi masterfully weaves a tale of family, identity, and the power of the past, in a world where the extraordinary is ordinary.

  • PRE - ORDER: Sleepover Night! (Step into Reading)

    Candice Ransom & Ashley Evans

    $5.99

    PRE-ORDER. ON SALE DATE: April 15, 2025

    It's sleepover time! Join Brother and Sister as they spend a night away from home in this Step 1 reader, perfect for children who know their alphabet and are eager to learn how to read! The Day kids series is full of family fun!

    Brother and Sister are having a sleepover! They're packing their things and grabbing their sleeping bags for an overnight at their cousins' house. Luckily, they live right next door! The night is bursting with excitement! It's time for hide-and-seek, fort making, popcorn and a movie. Before you know it, it's time to sleep but don't worry, in the morning there will be pancakes! Sleepover night is always so much fun!

    Step 1 Readers feature big type and easy words to decode. They are for children who know the alphabet and are eager to begin reading aided by rhymes and rhythmic text paired with picture clues.

    A day with family is always a great day! Read all the Day kids books, including:
    Apple Picking Day!
    Pumpkin Day!
    Beach Day!
    Snow Day!
    and more

  • PRE - ORDER: Searches: Selfhood in the Digital Age

    Vauhini Vara

    $30.00

    PRE-ORDER. ON SALE DATE: April 8, 2025

    From the author of The Immortal King Rao, finalist for the Pulitzer Prize,a personal exploration of how technology companies have both fulfilled and exploited the human desire for understanding and connection

    When it was released to the public in November 2022, ChatGPT awakened the world to a secretive project: teaching AI-powered machines to write. Its creators had a sweeping ambition—to build machines that could not only communicate, but could do all kinds of other activities, better than humans ever could. But was this goal actually achievable? And if reached, would it lead to our liberation or our subjugation?

    Vauhini Vara, an award-winning tech journalist and editor, had long been grappling with these questions. In 2021, she asked a predecessor of ChatGPT to write about her sister’s death, resulting in an essay that was both more moving and more disturbing than she could have imagined. It quickly went viral.

    The experience, revealing both the power and the danger of corporate-owned technologies, forced Vara to interrogate how these technologies have influenced her understanding of her self and the world around her, from discovering online chat rooms as a preteen, to using social media as the Wall Street Journal’s first Facebook reporter, to asking ChatGPT for writing advice—while compelling her to add to the trove of human-created material exploited for corporations’ financial gain. Interspersed throughout this investigation are her own Google searches, Amazon reviews, and the other raw material of internet life—including the viral AI experiment that started it all. Searches illuminates how technological capitalism is both shaping and exploiting human existence, while proposing that by harnessing the collective creativity that makes humans unique, we might imagine a freer, more empowered relationship with our machines and, ultimately, with one another.

  • PRE - ORDER: Rose Weaves a Garden

    Rashin Kheiriyeh

    $18.99

    PRE-ORDER. ON SALE DATE: April 22, 2025

    This heartfelt picture book about the love shared between generations--and the traditions that bind them--shows how a grandfather teaches his grandchild to weave a beautiful rug.

    Rose’s Baba joon (her grandfather) loves three things most in the world: His loom, where he weaves fine rugs for family and friends; his garden; and most of all, Rose!

    When Rose decides she wants to weave her own rug -- its design inspired by a drawing she made of their garden--Baba is thrilled to teach her. Working side-by-side at the loom, grandfather and granddaughter tie colorful strands of yarn into thousands of knots. But just as the rug slowly begins to take shape, Baba falls ill.

    Rose knows one thing that will make him feel better: a beautiful -- and finished! -- garden rug. But will she be able to weave the rest of the rug on her own?

    This tender portrait of a young girl and her grandfather is a moving tribute to the joy of learning from someone you love.

  • PRE - ORDER: Prose to the People: A Celebration of Black Bookstores

    Katie Mitchell & Nikki Giovanni

    $26.99

    PRE-ORDER. ON SALE DATE: April 8, 2025

    A stunning visual homage to Black bookstores around the country along with profiles and essays that celebrate the history, community, activism, and culture these spaces embody, featuring an original foreword by Nikki Giovanni.

    Black literature is perhaps the most powerful, polarizing force in the modern American zeitgeist. Today—as Black novels draw authoritarian ire, as Black memoirs shape public debates, as Black polemics inspire protest petitions—it’s more important than ever to highlight the places that center these stories: Black bookstores.

    Traversing teeming metropolises and tiny towns, Prose to the People explores these spaces, chronicling the Black bookstore's past and present lives. Combining narrative prose, eye-catching photography, one-on-one interviews, original essays, and specially curated poetry, Prose to the People is a reader’s road trip companion to the world of Black books.

    Thoughtfully curated by writer and Black bookstore owner Katie Mitchell, Prose to the People is a must-have addition to the shelves of anyone who loves book culture and Black history. A visually rich tribute, this dynamic book centers profiles of over fifty Black bookstores from the Northeast to the mid-Atlantic, the South, and the West Coast, complete with stunning original and archival photography.

    Interspersed throughout are essays, poems, and interviews by New York Times bestsellers Kiese Laymon, Rio Cortez, Pearl Cleage, and many more journalists, activists, authors, academics, and poets that offer deeper perspectives on these bookstores' role throughout the diaspora. Complete with a foreword by world-renowned poet and activist Nikki Giovanni, Prose to the People is a beautiful tribute to these vital pillars of the Black community.

  • PRE - ORDER: Planted with Love: Growing into a Family

    Natasha Tripplett & Adriana Predoi

    $13.99

    PRE-ORDER. ON SALE DATE: March 11, 2025

    A heartfelt picture book about one child's experience in foster care that reminds all kids that—just like a garden—love from the right source will help them bloom.

    Lamar has lived in seven homes in three years and has never stayed anywhere long enough to put down roots. As he watches his new foster mom tend to her garden each day, he soon joins her with cautious curiosity. Together, they plant, they weed, they water . . . until one day Lamar's anger and feelings of uncertainty lead him to destroy the garden.

    But through his foster mother's love and care, Lamar discovers that just like her garden, he is wanted, he is loved, he has been planted, and he will bloom.

    Written by a licensed social worker, Planted with Love illustrates that a loving home and a loving adult can provide a safe place for any child to grow and thrive.

  • PRE - ORDER: Pet Sitter #5 (Miles Lewis)

    Kelly Starling Lyons & Wayne Spencer

    $6.99

    PRE-ORDER. ON SALE DATE: February 18, 2025

    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 classmates welcome a few frogs as class pets, it's a reminder that what he really wants more than anything is a dog to call his own. But his parents don't think he's ready, and his attempts to show them that he truly can care for critters all end in disaster. Can Miles pull it together and prove that he's responsible enough for a pet once and for all?

  • PRE - ORDER: Only Because It's You: A Novel

    Rebecca Fisseha

    $19.95

    PRE-ORDER. ON SALE DATE: May 6, 2025

    "Full of humour and heartwarming moments—Rebecca delivers pure joy!" —Chantel Guertin, bestselling author of It Happened One Christmas

    A charming and touching romantic comedy about two best friends, a marriage-of-convenience, and taking a leap of faith to land exactly where you’re meant to be.

    Miz is not the marrying kind. She's more of the no-strings-attached kind. No labels, only fun. So, when she finds a diamond ring in her casual-but-very-hot hook-up’s gym bag, she immediately ends things and runs.

    Kal is one of Miz's best friends, an aspiring actor who moved to Toronto from Ethiopia and is on the brink of his big break. But when he's suddenly at risk of losing his work visa—which would mean leaving Toronto forever—Miz panics. What will she do without him? What if she never sees him again?

    There's only one solution: Miz will marry Kal to become his spousal sponsor. He'll get to keep pursuing his acting career, and she'll get to keep her best friend in the city. It'll be a quick, short only-on-paper marriage between friends, followed by a quick, easy divorce. What could possibly go wrong?

  • PRE - ORDER: One Way Witch

    Nnedi Okorafor

    $23.00

    PRE-ORDER. ON SALE DATE: April 29, 2025

    Set in the universe Africanfuturist luminary Nnedi Okorafor first introduced in the World Fantasy Award-winning Who Fears Death, One Way Witch is the second in the She Who Knows trilogy

    The world has forgotten Onyesonwu.

    As a teen, Najeeba learned to become the beast of wind, fire and dust: the kponyungo. When that took too much from her, including the life of her father, she let it all go, and for a time, she was happy — until only a few years later, when the small, normal life she’d built was violently destroyed.

    Now in her forties and years beyond the death of her second husband, Najeeba has just lost her beloved daughter. Onyesonwu saved the world. Najeeba knows this well, but the world does not. This is how the juju her daughter evoked works. One other person who remembers is Onyesonwu’s teacher Aro, a harsh and hard-headed sorcerer. Najeeba has decided to ask him to teach her the Mystic Points, the powerful heart of sorcery. There is something awful Najeeba needs to kill and the Mystic Points are the only way. Najeeba is truly her daughter’s mother.

    When Aro agrees to help, Najeeba is at last ready to forge her future. But first, she must confront her past — for certain memories cannot lie in unmarked graves.

  • PRE - ORDER: One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This

    Omar El Akkad

    $28.00

    PRE-ORDER. ON SALE DATE: February 25, 2025

    From award-winning novelist and journalist Omar El Akkad comes a powerful reckoning with what it means to live in a West that betrays its fundamental values

    On October 25, 2023, after just three weeks of the bombardment of Gaza, Omar El Akkad put out a tweet: “One day, when it’s safe, when there’s no personal downside to calling a thing what it is, when it’s too late to hold anyone accountable, everyone will have always been against this.” This tweet has been viewed more than 10 million times.

    As an immigrant who came to the West, El Akkad believed that it promised freedom. A place of justice for all. But in the past twenty years, reporting on the War on Terror, Ferguson, climate change, Black Lives Matter protests, and more, and watching the unmitigated slaughter in Gaza, El Akkad has come to the conclusion that much of what the West promises is a lie. That there will always be entire groups of human beings it has never intended to treat as fully human—not just Arabs or Muslims or immigrants, but whoever falls outside the boundaries of privilege. One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This is a chronicle of that painful realization, a moral grappling with what it means, as a citizen of the U.S., as a father, to carve out some sense of possibility in a time of carnage.

    This is El Akkad’s nonfiction debut, his most raw and vulnerable work to date, a heartsick breakup letter with the West. It is a brilliant articulation of the same breakup we are watching all over the United States, in family rooms, on college campuses, on city streets; the consequences of this rupture are just beginning. This book is for all the people who want something better than what the West has served up. This is the book for our time.

  • PRE - ORDER: One Day in June: A Story Inspired by the Life and Activism of Marsha P. Johnson

    Tourmaline & Charlot Kirstensen

    $18.99

    PRE-ORDER. ON SALE DATE: May 20, 2025

    You can sparkle, shimmer, shine – just like Marsha did.

    This vibrant and joyful picture book celebrates the legacy of Marsha P. Johnson, a Black trans woman and activist who played an instrumental role during the Stonewall Riots that lead to PRIDE month, written by award-winning filmmaker and artist Tourmaline.

    You wouldn’t even believe the things Saint Marsha used to get up to—she had more of a zest for life than anyone I’ve ever known, and the biggest heart, too.

    It’s a hot summer day and New York City is buzzing like a hive of eager honeybees. From Riis Beach to the Flower District, into the West Village and over to the Brooklyn Museum, folks young and old embrace the resolute and love-filled spirit of icon activist Marsha P. Johnson in all that they do.

    Told through the eyes of an old friend and with bright, buoyant artwork, this jubilant story celebrates the indelible stamp that Marsha P. Johnson left on New York City and beyond, culminating in a powerful convergence one day in June 2020, when activists from across all five boroughs rallied loudly for Black trans lives.

    The spirit of Marsha has never been more alive and present in what we do.

  • PRE - ORDER: O Sinners!: A Novel

    Nicole Cuffy

    $28.00

    PRE-ORDER. ON SALE DATE: March 18, 2025

    A young journalist, reeling from loss, investigates a mysterious cult in the California redwoods, only to be drawn in by its charismatic leader in this addictive novel that asks why people give up control and what it takes, ultimately, to find one’s place in the world.

    Faruq Zaidi, a young journalist processing the recent death of his father, a devout Muslim, takes the opportunity to embed himself in a cult called “the nameless.” Based in the California redwoods and shepherded by an enigmatic Vietnam War veteran named Odo, the nameless adhere to the 18 Utterances, including teachings such as “all suffering is distortion” and “see only beauty.” Faruq, skeptical but committed to unraveling the mystery of the nameless, extends his stay over months, as he gets deeper into the cult’s inner workings and alluring teachings. But as he gets closer to Odo, Faruq himself begins to unravel, forced to come to terms with the memories he has been running from while trying to resist Odo’s spell. 

    Told in three seamlessly interwoven threads―Faruq’s present-day investigation, Odo’s time as an infantryman during the Vietnam War alongside three other Black soldiers before the formation of the movement, and a documentary script that recounts the nameless’s clash with a Texas fundamentalist church―O Sinners! examines both longing and belonging. Ultimately the novel asks: What is it that we seek from the people we admire and, inevitably, from one another?

  • PRE - ORDER: Nubia: Too Real

    L.L. McKinney & Robyn Smith

    $16.99

    PRE-ORDER. ON SALE DATE: September 2, 2025

    The highly anticipated sequel to NUBIA: REAL ONE highlights the importance of self-acceptance and the enduring power of true friendship!

    After a turbulent school year, Nubia is both thrilled and anxious as she embarks on a transformative summer training with the Amazons on Themyscira! Amid the mounting pressure of expectations, she grapples with feeling like an outsider, letting the weight of her self-doubt strain her most important relationships.

    Just when she thought her life couldn’t get more complicated, her biggest fear threatens the safety of everyone on Paradise Island. Will Nubia rise above the chaos and embrace her true self as the hero she was destined to be?

    From critically acclaimed author L.L McKinney and brought to life with delightful, vivid art by Robyn Smith, NUBIA: TOO REAL follows Nubia as she explores her Amazonian identity, navigates her friendships, and learns how to love herself.

  • PRE - ORDER: Wander in the Dark

    Jumata Emill

    $12.99

    PRE-ORDER. ON SALE DATE: January 14, 2025

    The pulse-pounding thriller from the author of The Black Queen! Two brothers must come together to solve the Mardi Gras murder of the most popular girl in school after one of them is caught fleeing the scene of her death.

    Amir Trudeau only goes to his half brother Marcel’s birthday party because of Chloe Danvers. Chloe is rich, and hot, and fits right into the perfect life Marcel inherited when their father left Amir’s mother to start a new family with Marcel’s mom. But Chloe is hot enough for Amir to forget that for one night.

    Does she want to hook up? Or is she trying to meddle in the estranged brothers’ messy family drama? Amir can’t tell. He doesn’t know what Chloe wants from him when, in the final hours of Mardi Gras, she asks him to take her home and stay—her parents are away and she doesn’t want to be alone.

    Amir never finds out, because when he wakes up, Chloe is dead—stabbed while he was passed out on the couch. And in no time, Amir becomes the only suspect. A Black teenager caught fleeing the scene of a rich white girl’s murder? All of New Orleans agrees: the case is open-and-shut.

    Amir is innocent. He has a lawyer, but unless someone can figure out who really killed Chloe, things don’t look good for him. His number one ally? Marcel. Their relationship is messy, but Marcel knows that Amir isn’t a murderer—and maybe proving his innocence will repair the rift between them.

    To find Chloe’s killer, Amir and Marcel need to dig into her secrets. And what they find is darker than either could have guessed. Parents will go to any lengths to protect their children, and in a city as old as New Orleans, the right family connections can bury even the ugliest truths.

  • PRE - ORDER: She Who Knows

    Nnedi Okorafor

    $18.00

    PRE-ORDER. ON SALE DATE: March 25, 2025

    Amazon Editors' Pick - August 2024
    Gizmodo's New Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror Books Releasing in August
    Screenrant #1 Most Anticipated Book in Sci-fi Coming Out in August

    ⭐ "Readers will devour this." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
    ⭐ "While this book may be short, its impact is anything but small." —Kirkus (starred review)

    Part science fiction, part fantasy, and entirely infused with West African culture and spirituality, this novella offers an intimate glimpse into the life of a teenager whose coming of age will herald a new age for her world. Set in the universe Africanfuturist luminary Nnedi Okorafor first introduced in the World Fantasy Award-winning Who Fears Death, this is the first in the She Who Knows trilogy

    When there is a call, there is often a response.

    Najeeba knows.

    She has had The Call. But how can a 13-year-old girl have the Call? Only men and boys experience the annual call to the Salt Roads. What’s just happened to Najeeba has never happened in the history of her village. But it’s not a terrible thing, just strange. So when she leaves with her father and brothers to mine salt at the Dead Lake, there’s neither fanfare nor protest. For Najeeba, it’s a dream come true: travel by camel, open skies, and a chance to see a spectacular place she’s only heard about. However, there must have been something to the rule, because Najeeba’s presence on the road changes everything and her family will never be the same.

    Small, intimate, up close, and deceptively quiet, this is the beginning of the Kponyungo Sorceress.

  • PRE - ORDER: Martyr!: A Novel

    Kaveh Akbar

    $18.00

    Paperback Release: December 31, 2024

    NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • SHORTLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD • A newly sober, orphaned son of Iranian immigrants, guided by the voices of artists, poets, and kings, embarks on a remarkable search for a family secret that leads him to a terminally ill painter living out her final days in the Brooklyn Museum. Electrifying, funny, and wholly original, Martyr! heralds the arrival of an essential new voice in contemporary fiction.

    NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR SO FAR FOR 2024 BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW AND ATIME MUST-READ BOOK OF THE YEAR

    “Kaveh Akbar is one of my favorite writers. Ever.” —Tommy Orange, Pulitzer Prize–nominated author of There There

    “The best novel you'll ever read about the joy of language, addiction, displacement, martyrdom, belonging, homesickness.” —Lauren Groff, best-selling author of Matrix and Fates and Furies

    Cyrus Shams is a young man grappling with an inheritance of violence and loss: his mother’s plane was shot down over the skies of the Persian Gulf in a senseless accident; and his father’s life in America was circumscribed by his work killing chickens at a factory farm in the Midwest. Cyrus is a drunk, an addict, and a poet, whose obsession with martyrs leads him to examine the mysteries of his past—toward an uncle who rode through Iranian battlefields dressed as the angel of death to inspire and comfort the dying, and toward his mother, through a painting discovered in a Brooklyn art gallery that suggests she may not have been who or what she seemed.

    Kaveh Akbar’s Martyr! is a paean to how we spend our lives seeking meaning—in faith, art, ourselves, others.

  • PRE - ORDER: Notes of a Native Son (Beacon Classics)

    James Baldwin & Edward P. Jones

    $24.00

    PRE-ORDER. ON SALE DATE: February 4, 2025

    A deluxe hardcover edition of one of James Baldwin’s most admired works, exploring what it means to be Black in America and his own search for identity

    Part of the Beacon Classics series

    Originally published in 1955, James Baldwin's timeless and moving essays on life in Harlem, the protest novel, movies, and African Americans abroad inaugurated him as one of the leading interpreters of the dramatic social changes erupting in the United States in the 20th century. Through a mix of autobiographical and analytical essays, Baldwin delivers honest and raw revelations about what it means to be Black in America, specifically pre-Civil Rights Movement, and how, he himself, came to understand the nation.

    Writing as an artist, activist, and social critic, Baldwin examines everything from the significance of the protest novel to the motives and circumstances of the many Black expatriates of the time, from his home in “The Harlem Ghetto” to a sobering “Journey to Atlanta.” He was one of the few writing on race at the time who addressed the issue with a powerful mixture of outrage at the gross physical and political violence against Black citizens and measured understanding of their oppressors, which helped awaken a white audience to the injustices under their noses.

    For fans of Baldwin's well-known works or those new to Baldwin altogether, this celebrated essay collection showcases his extraordinary writing, revolutionary analyses, and prophetic insight into American culture and politics.

  • PRE - ORDER: Not Sure Who Needs to Hear This, But . . .: 100 Postcards with Beautiful Reminders for the Soul

    Wille Greene

    $20.00

    PRE-ORDER. ON SALE DATE: February 4, 2025

    A vibrant collection of 100 postcards featuring affirmations on self-love, inner peace, and healing, from WE THE URBAN founder Willie Greene.

    A platform that celebrates self-love, inclusivity, and empowerment, WE THE URBAN shares signature affirmations that have resonated with millions of people, many of whom share posts with friends on social media and use them to guide their personal journeys.

    Now, fans can share WE THE URBAN’s magic with this collection of 100 postcards that bring to life the powerful quotes the platform is famous for. Exploring inner peace, self-love, healing, growth, and more, these colorful postcards feature 50 original affirmations, each repeating once, that capture and validate our shared humanity. Whether you’re mailing a postcard to lift the spirits of a loved one or framing one for a daily dose of empowerment, these postcards offer 100 vibrant opportunities to share joy and positivity with someone who needs it.

  • PRE - ORDER: No Ordinary Love

    Myah Ariel

    $19.00

    PRE-ORDER. ON SALE DATE: April 1, 2025

    A PR relationship between a pop superstar and a pro-athlete bad boy turns into so much more in this swoony romance from the acclaimed author of When I Think of You.

    Ella Simone’s popstar life is what dreams are made of. Her eight year marriage to renowned music producer, Elliot Majors, has helped garner the hits, awards, and adoring fans to prove it. But when Ella tires of Elliot's many infidelities, she decides to fight for her independence despite the ironclad prenup that threatens her career.

    To help her case, Ella is under strict orders to stick to The Plan: no headlines, no rumors, no rocking the boat. But this strategy is thrown a curveball after an awards show wardrobe snafu and quick rescue by Miles Westbrook, MLB’s most eligible player, sends the tabloids into a frenzy. Amid tricky divorce proceedings, Ella’s magnetic connection with the charismatic pitcher might just be her downfall.

    Now the pressure is on to turn a scandal into an opportunity and give their teams what they want: a picture-perfect performance that will shore up both Ella and Miles' reputations. But as the lines between reality and PR begin to blur, Ella will either stick to the choreographed life she knows so well, or surrender to a love that could set her free.

Stay Informed. We're building a community committed to celebrating Black authors + artisans. Subscribe to keep up with all things Kindred Stories.