A heartwarming and unforgettable collection of love stories set at Historically Black Colleges and Universities, exploring hope, endurance, and what it means to leave a legacy, from some of today’s most prominent Black writers and edited by the acclaimed author of Love Radio

Love can be messy, painful, and heartbreaking, but it can also be revolutionary, profound, and hopeful. For Celine, a forbidden crush on a professor evolves into a second chance at romance years later. Myra’s focus on a coveted audition for the Fisk Jubilee Singers is challenged by the handsome music major determined to help her. Kiese investigates the darker side to academia, love, and identity. Like most blessings, love emerges in the most unexpected places—in a training cockpit for new pilots, during a Mardi Gras celebration, or while gathering signatures to start the first-ever LGBTQ+ student organization officially recognized at an HBCU.

These are just a few of the heart-searing, tender, and transporting love stories collected in You’ve Got a Place Here, Too—a true celebration of Black love and the profound impact of HBCUs on the community.

Featuring stories by Elizabeth Acevedo, Jasmine Bell, Carla Bruce, Aaron Foley, Kai Harris, Ebony LaDelle, Kiese Laymon, Christine Platt, Farrah Rochon, Kennedy Ryan, Dawnie Walton, and Nicola Yoon.

*Paperback Release Date - 10/6/2026*

Named one of the Most Anticipated Books of 2025 by Foreign Policy

“Howard French’s The Second Emancipation stands the second half of the last century on its geopolitical head.” ―David Levering Lewis, winner of the Pulitzer Prize

From the acclaimed author of Born in Blackness comes an extraordinary account of Africa’s liberation from colonial oppression, a work that fundamentally reshapes our understanding of modern history.

A work of epic dimension that recasts the liberation of twentieth-century Africa through the lens of revolutionary leader Kwame Nkrumah.

The Second Emancipation, the second work in a trilogy from best-selling author Howard W. French about Africa’s pivotal role in shaping world history, underscores Adam Hochschild’s contention that French is a “modern-day Copernicus.” The title―referring to a brief period beginning in 1957 when dozens of African colonies gained their freedom―positions this liberation at the center of a “movement of global Blackness,” with one charismatic leader, Kwame Nkrumah (1909–1972), at its head.

That so few people today know about Nkrumah is an omission that French demonstrates is “typical of our deliberate neglect of Africa’s enormous role in the birth of the modern world.” Determined to re-create Nkrumah’s life as “an epic twentieth-century story,” The Second Emancipation begins with his impoverished, unheralded birth in the far-western region of Ghana’s Gold Coast. But blessed with a deep curiosity, a young Nkrumah pursued an overseas education in the United States. Nowhere is French’s consummate style more vivid than in Nkrumah’s early years in Depression-era America, especially in his mesmerizing portrait of a culturally effervescent Harlem that Nkrumah encountered in 1935 before heading to college. During his student years in Pennsylvania and later as an activist in London, Nkrumah became steeped in a renowned international Black intellectual milieu―including Du Bois, Garvey, Fanon, Padmore, and C.L.R. James, who called him “one of the greatest political leaders of our century”―and formed an ideology that readied him for an extraordinarily swift and peaceful rise to power upon his return to Ghana in 1947.

Four years later, in a political landslide he engineered while imprisoned, Nkrumah stunned Britain by winning the first general election under universal franchise in Africa, becoming Ghana’s first independent prime minister in 1957. As leader of a sovereign nation, Nkrumah wielded his influence to promote the liberation of the entire continent, pushing unity as the only pathway to recover from the damages of enslavement and subjugation. By the time national military and police forces, aided by the CIA, overthrew him in 1966, Nkrumah’s radical belief in pan-African liberation had both galvanized dozens of nascent African states and fired a global agenda of Black power.

In its dramatic recasting of the American civil rights story and in its tragic depiction of a continent that once exuded all the promise of a newly won freedom, The Second Emancipation becomes a generational work that positions Africa at the forefront of modern-day history.

16 pages of illustrations; 3 maps

Paperback Release Date - 9/29/2026

An allegorical love story — a modern day Alchemist meets The Never Ending Story —set in a world where a book shopkeeper becomes a reluctant matchmaker, bringing soulmates together through books.

It’s Me They Follow is an allegorical love story set in a not so distant past. It follows The Shopkeeper, a bookseller and reluctant matchmaker. Helping others find love through books comes easily for The Shopkeeper, until it is time for her to find love for herself.

She secretly yearns for her first customer, ME, who took both her most prized book and a piece of her heart when he left. But just when she begins to lose hope, she discovers that she may hold the key to her own happily ever after as well.

Real life Shopkeeper and author Jeannine A. Cook has conjured a magical story that is a book within a book within a book. Soon, readers will find themselves falling under the same love spell as her customers and characters. In this magical bookshop where the line between fiction and reality blurs, stories and real life intertwine in an enchanting and moving narrative about human connection, the power of storytelling, and the spirit of love.

*Paperback Release Date - 9/29/26*

Malcolm Gladwell returns with his most urgent book yet: a provocative investigation of America's epidemic of gun violence. 

The United States has far more homicides than any of its peers around the world. Why?

In this groundbreaking book, Malcolm Gladwell explores the American “peculiarity”―how the world’s wealthiest country came to suffer from a problem typically only seen in the world’s poorest countries.

Drawing on original interviews, archival and social science research, and his trademark insight, Gladwell approaches the American paradox through a series of stories. What can we learn from the miracle of a young gunshot victim in Washington, D.C.? How have the legal troubles of a seventeenth-century English knight influenced American attempts at gun control? Why would a European police chief be baffled by the graduation ceremony at any American police academy?

In a sweeping narrative, Gladwell travels from a shooting range in North Carolina, to the South Side of Chicago, to an old plantation house in Alabama, painting a picture of a country that does not understand its most pressing social problem, and as result, does not understand how to fix it.

Hit the ground running with all five books in Jason Reynolds’s award-winning and New York Times bestselling Track series, now available together in one paperback boxed set.

Ghost. Patina. Sunny. Lu. A fast and fiery group of kids from wildly different backgrounds, chosen to compete on an elite track team. They all have a lot to lose, a lot to gain, and, most of all, a lot to prove, not only to each other, but to themselves. Under the caring yet firm-handed guidance of their coach, however, they may achieve more than they ever dreamed possible.

Here are all their stories, even Coach’s from when he was a boy coming into his own as a track superstar, in this explosive five-book series.

This paperback boxed set includes:
Ghost
Patina
Sunny
Lu
Coach

Step into the vibrant streets of the 1970s Bronx and witness the exact moment a global movement began. Birth of a Culture gives you a front-row seat to the origins of hip-hop, told through the firsthand experiences of Grandmaster Flash—one of the founding pioneers who helped build the culture from the ground up.

When you read this book, you feel the pulse of the neighborhood parks, hear the scratch of the vinyl, and experience the raw energy of a community turning its daily struggles into a revolutionary art form. This is not just a collection of dates and facts. It is a deeply personal narrative written by Grandmaster Flash and coauthor Robert “Scoop” Jackson that brings you into the rooms and onto the streets where music changed forever.

What you will discover inside:

* An Authentic Pioneer Perspective: Read a personal narrative from the mind of Grandmaster Flash, complete with untold stories of the earliest park jams and legendary club nights.
* The Blueprint of a Movement: Understand exactly how DJing, MCing, break dancers, and graffiti artists merged to form the core pillars of a massive cultural shift.
* Untold History Revealed: Uncover the real stories behind the evolution of hip-hop and culture.
* Timeless Cultural Relevance: Explore how the innovation born in the Bronx directly influences the music, art, and social movements you interact with every day.

This book cuts through the myths to deliver an authentic, chronological history—bringing you alongside Grandmaster Flash as he invents the groundbreaking Quik Mix Theory and helps transform a landscape of social unrest into a global movement. With turntables and microphones, the young innovator sparked a cultural explosion that quickly swept the world.

More than a timeline of musical milestones, this Birth of a Culture explores the profound power of community, resilience, and unapologetic creativity. The challenges and triumphs detailed within these pages mirror the social issues we still face, proving that music remains our most vital tool for connection and change.

Whether you are a lifelong hip-hop fan, a dedicated music historian, or simply someone who loves powerful stories of cultural triumph, this book belongs on your shelf. Once you’ve read Birth of a Culture, you can say you know the undeniable heartbeat of hip-hop's true origins.

Published with Musée d'Ethnographie de Genève .

Developed in collaboration with the Musée d'Ethnographie de Genève to accompany an exhibition of the same name, Afrosonica is a multidisciplinary editorial and sound project that illuminates the richness, diversity and resonance of African and Afro-diasporic sound traditions. The collected essays, conversations and visual contributions by artists, academics and musicians alike revisit Western-centric frameworks in ethnomusicology, delineating how African musical phenomena and their diasporas have shaped cultural identity worldwide. Complementing the book, the Afrosonica record features new works by prominent sound artists such as KMRU, Midori Takada, Yara Mekawei and Ntshepe Tsekere Bopape, whose compositions bridge the gap between sonic archives and living practice.

From National Book Award-winning, New York Times-bestselling author and renowned poet Elizabeth Acevedo comes a white-knuckle journey to self-understanding and doing the right thing, no matter the cost.

Lil is anything but small. She’s rebellious, she's loyal; she's figuring out what kind of good person she wants to be, or if she wants to be a good person at all. But more than anything? Lil wants to be free.

When her instinct for freedom leads to another stay in D.C. juvenile detention, Lil knows she’s lucky to just be on probation. But judgment, guilt, and an ankle monitor weigh heavily on her, and she can’t shake that pinned-down feeling.

The only person who might understand is her big brother, Aldwin. Except he’s more distant now than just the hundred miles where he’s away at college. Something’s been off with him for a couple of months, but only Lil seems to realize how important it is to get to him.

As her court hearing ticks closer, a question looms over Lil as the missed phone calls and strange texts from her brother pile up: will she follow the rules until her sentencing, or put her future freedom on the line?

From the New York Times bestselling author of Platonic, a groundbreaking guide exploring the promise (and limits) of secure attachment to help us feel better and boost our self-esteem.

“I can't think of anyone who won’t need this book.” —Jen Hatmaker, New York Times bestselling author and host of For the Love

What if what you thought you knew about secure attachment was wrong? Or worse, making you more insecure?

Dr. Marisa G. Franco is the New York Times bestselling friendship expert whose advice Glennon Doyle calls “wise, concrete, and effective”—Dr. Franco literally wrote the book on how to become a securely attached friend. But since then, she’s realized that when we feel unworthy, the things we think should make us feel secure and raise our self-esteem often backfire:

* Optimistic self-talk makes us feel worse, not better.
* Positive feedback raises our blood pressure.
* Compliments make us uncomfortable.
* Positive events make us sicker.

The good news: Self-esteem is a skill that can be learned—and you can get better at it, which in turn strengthens all your other relationships. In Worth, Dr. Franco mines promising new research at the intersection of psychology and neuroscience to show us why so many of us still struggle with self-esteem (even in this self-obsessed age), and how we can build a foundation of lasting self-worth that doesn’t rely on likes or followers.

Through exercises, stories, and the cutting-edge science of memory reconsolidation, updating damaging memories to change the stories we tell ourselves, Dr. Franco shows how we can bring meaning, self-worth, and secure attachment back into our lives, from the inside out. If you feel like you’ve read every book on healing, but you are still struggling, Worth will help you finally find the transformation you’ve been looking for.

In this haunting historical novel, a light-skinned Black man goes undercover to investigate lynchings in the Jim Crow South, only to be confronted by the very evil that has pursued him since childhood.

Clark Wendell White first encountered the Nightmare as a child during the Atlanta Race Riot of 1906, when he and his father stood guard over their family home. In the eyes of the mob surging through his neighborhood, Clark sensed this malevolent presence. It was then that the Nightmare took shape, burrowing deep into his mind and feeding on his fear.

Years later, the same evil presence drives Clark to the NAACP's headquarters in New York City, where he answers an ad seeking light-skinned Black men for dangerous undercover work. As a spy for the NAACP, Clark investigates lynchings, impersonating the very Nightmare that once tormented him.

As Clark descends deeper into this double life, another force rises: a new chapter of the Ku Klux Klan, finding a foothold in the storied streets of New York City. Among its eager recruits is Sam Cahill—the one man who can see past his disguise. Now Clark must outwit both the living and the dead, as he confronts a past that refuses to stay buried and a future where the act of passing exacts a soul-deep price.

Inspired by the life of civil rights activist Walter White, who passed as a white man to expose the brutality of lynchings from the South to the Midwest, American Nightmare is a gripping historical thriller that reveals the most terrifying monsters aren't those that go bump in the night but those that walk among us.

*Paperback Release Date - 10/27/2026*

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.

The second book in a creepy duology about Mystery James, who was found as a baby in a cemetery, lives in a funeral home, and can smell ghosts. This time, spring break takes a terrifying turn when Mystery suspects a ghost has entered her home…and refuses to leave.

"A new middle grade heroine you’re going to love."—BookRiot

Spring break was supposed to be a time for relaxation, but for Mystery James, it quickly turns into a series of spine-chilling adventures. After a burial at Garcia Graves & Funeral Home, Mystery begins to suspect the ghost of one of Ellis Town's most eccentric residents may be lingering in her home...or worse, haunting it.

With her trusty arachnid companion, Coffin by her side, Mystery must contend with creepy mortuary salesmen, a sinister presence creeping through her Tia Lucy's home, and changing friendship dynamics, all while uncovering clues that lead her deeper into an increasingly complex—and personal—mystery.

Soon, the Olde Ellis Town Cemetery becomes the backdrop for a showdown between the past and the present, where Mystery must confront her deepest fears and uncover the truth behind the supernatural events that have plagued her since childhood.