With a powerful introduction by Ross Gay and a moving afterword by Sidney Clifton, this special anniversary edition of The Book of Light offers new meditations and insights on one of the most beloved voices of the 20th century.

Though The Book of Light opens with thirty-nine names for light, we soon learn the most meaningful name is Lucille—daughter, mother, proud Black woman. Known for her ability to convey multitudes in few words, Clifton writes into the shadows—her father’s violations, a Black neighborhood bombed, death, loss—all while illuminating the full spectrum of human emotion: grief and celebration, anger and joy, empowerment and so much grace. 

The collected creative nonfiction of a singular American writer, Jesmyn Ward, including widely shared classics, three never-before-published speeches, and an introductory essay.

Respair (noun, obsolete), fresh hope after despair.

From the two-time National Book Award winner and New York Times bestselling author Jesmyn Ward, this collection of essays documents more than a decade of work in the life of a singular writer often lauded as “the heir apparent to Toni Morrison” (LitHub). Beginning with her upbringing in a multigenerational household in rural Mississippi, the cradle of both her youth and her gift for storytelling, Ward brings her keen wisdom and hauntingly lyrical prose to a range of topics, following in her grandmother Dorothy’s footsteps when she promises always to “Tell it straight. Tell it all.”

True to her word, in these pages Ward contemplates the writers and novels of her youth and adulthood—the transformative power of discovering Octavia Butler as a twenty-something, the mirror that Richard Wright’s novels held up to her own childhood, and of course, her lifelong love for Toni Morrison. Ward ruminates on her approach to both fiction and life, reflecting on the power of the novel, how to raise a Black son in an era of rising divisiveness and cruelty, as well as her own personal tragedies—including the titular essay of the collection, which tells the story of her partner’s sudden death on the eve of the COVID-19 epidemic. Every bit as piercing and moving as her fiction, On Witness and Respair is a testament to Ward’s powers as “one of America’s finest living writers” (San Francisco Chronicle) and is a monument to hope, beauty, and personal and collective resilience.

Candice Carty-Williams, internationally bestselling author of Queenie (now a television series on Hulu), reunites us with the iconic character nearly ten years on, facing new chaotic choices in life and love with cherished old friends and family in this highly anticipated sequel.

Queenie Jenkins is moving on up.

She’s thirty-three, the editorial director for The Good Sis, a thriving media network amplifying the voices of Black women, a far cry from her former toxic workplace. With a great platform and a renewed sense of purpose, she’s fighting the good fight.

So when an appointment for research goes haywire and reveals startling truths about her own fertility, Queenie is confronted with a racing biological clock when she’s not even sure she wants kids in the first place. She’s sort of seeing someone, but it’s not that serious (according to him), and her mom, grandma, and aunt Maggie all mean well, but they keep asking when she’s going to settle down.

Surrounded by loyal friends who seem to fall in love with their person and get pregnant at the drop of a hat, Queenie feels they just don’t get her. After a series of confusing “situationships” that prove more trouble than they’re worth, an old flame that she’s now second-guessing why she ended it with, and her beloved grandfather’s failing health, Queenie feels as though time is running out in all the parts in her life. And she’s going to do what she thinks is best to get back on track, no matter how inadvisable.

Bigger. Not better. Older. Not wiser. The beloved and flawed Queenie Jenkins is scared, she is frustrated, she is confused…but…she is working on it.

The New York Times bestselling author of This Will Be My Undoing and Caul Baby returns with an epic, multi-generational novel that illuminates the legacy of slavery and the power of romantic love.

Harlem, 2019. Ardelia and Oliver are hosting their engagement party. As the guests get ready to leave, he hands her a love letter on a yellowing, crumbling piece of paper . . .

Natchez, 1865. Discharged from the Union Army as a free man after the war’s end, Harrison returns to Mississippi to reunite with the woman he loves, Tirzah. Upon his arrival at the Freedmen’s Bureau, though, he catches the eye of a woman working there, who’s determined to thwart his efforts to find his beloved. After tragedy strikes, Harrison resigns himself to a life with her. 

Meanwhile in Louisiana, the newly free Tirzah is teaching at a freedmen’s school, and discovers an advertisement in the local paper looking for her. Though she knows Harrison must have placed it, and longs to find him, the risks of fleeing are too great, and Tirzah chooses the life of seeming security right in front of her.

Spanning over a hundred and fifty years, Morgan Jerkins’s extraordinary novel intertwines the stories of these star-crossed lovers and their descendants. As Tirzah's family moves across the country during the Great Migration, they challenge authority with devastating consequences, while of the legacy of heartbreak and loss continues on in the lives of Harrison's progeny.

When Ardelia meets Oliver, she finds his family’s history is as full of secrets and omissions as her own. Could their connection be a cosmic reconciliation satisfying the unfulfilled desires of their ancestors, or will the weight of the past, present and future tear them apart?

Sweeping, textured, and meticulously researched, Zeal is both a story of how one generation’s choices reverberate through the years and an indelible portrait of an enduring love.

After battling the impossible, Zélie and Amari have finally succeeded in bringing magic back to the land of Orïsha. But the ritual was more powerful than they could’ve imagined, reigniting the powers of not only the maji, but of nobles with magic ancestry, too.

Now, Zélie struggles to unite the maji in an Orïsha where the enemy is just as powerful as they are. But when the monarchy and military unite to keep control of Orïsha, Zélie must fight to secure Amari's right to the throne and protect the new maji from the monarchy's wrath.

With civil war looming on the horizon, Zélie finds herself at a breaking point: She must discover a way to bring the kingdom together or watch as Orïsha tears itself apart.

Children of Virtue and Vengeance is the stunning sequel to Tomi Adeyemi's New York Times-bestselling debut Children of Blood and Bone, the first book in her Legacy of Orïsha trilogy.

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The riveting new novel by the author of the 2021 National Book Award winner and bestseller Hell of a Book

People Like Us is Jason Mott’s electric new novel. It is not memoir, yet it has deeply personal connections to Jason’s life. And while rooted in reality, it explodes with dreamlike experiences that pull a reader in and don’t let go, from the ability to time travel to sightings of sea monsters and peacocks, and feelings of love and memory so real they hurt.

In People Like Us, two Black writers are trying to find peace and belonging in a world that is riven with gun violence. One is on a global book tour after a big prize win; the other is set to give a speech at a school that has suffered a shooting. And as their two storylines merge, truths and antics abound in equal measure: characters drink booze out of an award trophy; menaces lurk in the shadows; tiny French cars putter around the countryside; handguns seem to hover in the air; and dreams endure against all odds.

People Like Us is wickedly funny and achingly sad all at once. It is an utter triumph bursting with larger-than-life characters who deliver a very real take on our world. This book contains characters experiencing deep loss and longing; it also is buoyed by riotous humor and characters who share the deepest love. It is the newest creation of a writer whose work amazes, delivering something utterly new yet instantly recognizable as a Jason Mott novel. 

Finishing the novel will leave you absolutely breathless and, at the same time, utterly filled with joy for life, changed forever by characters who are people like us.

This is not a whirlwind romance.
It’s a slow burn between two people who have everything to lose.

Noelle Collins has built her life on control.
As Houston’s most sought-after matchmaker, she’s mastered the art of managing desire—from a distance. Her reputation is flawless. Her emotions are not up for negotiation.

Ezra Sinclair has lived inside expectation his entire life.
The heir to one of Houston’s most powerful families, his future has been planned, measured, and scrutinized long before he ever had a say. Love has never been part of the equation—until Noelle.

What begins as a professional arrangement becomes something far more dangerous:
a connection neither of them is prepared to explain, defend, or walk away from.

As their worlds collide—legacy versus independence, image versus truth—Noelle and Ezra are forced to confront what happens when desire doesn’t fade quietly… and the right match isn’t the one the world approves of.

Her Client, His Match is a sophisticated contemporary Black romance about power, emotional restraint, and choosing love with intention—perfect for readers who love slow-burn chemistry, mature characters, and relationships built on more than attraction.

Set in the dynamic worlds of professional basketball and entertainment, two of Kennedy Ryan's most critically-acclaimed series-Hollywood Renaissance and HOOPs-collide in this tale of forbidden romance.

I met Nazareth Armstrong when I was eighteen years old. From the beginning, my brother warned me to stay away from him. Told Naz to stay away from me.

Our hearts didn't listen.

I shared one magical night under the stars with my brother's rival, thinking it was the start of a once-in-a-lifetime something.

But one awful moment ended it all.

Years later when we meet again, we've both pursued our dreams, lived a little, found success...but never found love. What began as a tiny flame when we were young now threatens to consume us. I'm more drawn to Naz than ever, but his complicated history with my brother makes whatever this could be...nearly impossible.

But Naz accepts impossible as a dare.

Through his clever maneuvering and dogged determination, I find myself on a yacht with him and his friends cruising through the Mediterranean. It's a whirlwind set ablaze. Away from reality, surrendering to the tender heat of his touch, I forget that everything could burn.

*ships in 7-10 business days

From parents and actors Jazmyn Simon and Dulé Hill comes a picture book filled with beautiful, inspiring affirmations reminding kiddos of their infinite wonder. Perfect for children of any age!

I am worthy. I am loved. I am enough.
Every child, no matter their age, needs to know how loved they are and, more importantly, should love themselves. In this gorgeously illustrated book of affirmations, young readers are told how cherished, deserving, and gifted they are.

In their tender picture book, actors Jazmyn Simon and Dulé Hill tell children about the magic of self-love and standing firm, regardless of outside voices and doubt. Children will feel their confidence grow as they repeat the encouraging words on the page, take in the warm illustrations, and learn to believe in themselves!

A stellar addition to the Amistad list: a beautiful coming-of-age novel from MWA Grand Master and PEN and Edgar Award-winner Walter Mosley that explores love in all forms—romantic, familial, and platonic, centered on one Black family, including a neurodivergent man, and the found bonds that helps ground them.

One of the most acclaimed writers working today, Walter Mosley spins magic once again in this beautiful novel that explores the lives of Black characters and one remarkable family through a lens both universal and unique. It touches on the lives of those whose deepest thoughts and motivations are seldom explored—including the neurodivergent, the incarcerated, and the immigrant tortured by their past—characters who will stay with you and change how you see the world.

Ghalen, a brilliant young Black man, is the son of two seemingly mismatched parents. His mother, a gifted scientist, whose own mother expected her to exceed all the achievements in her family, and his father, a gentle cook at a small vegetarian restaurant, whose idiosyncratic nature shows the young woman a radically different love and understanding of life, despite his inexperience and lack of education.

His parents’ grand love story starts it all off, setting us up to follow Ghalen and his family so deeply, that each new twist and turn feels personal.

The journey through Ghalen’s coming-of-age tale, as he ventures out into the world, is marked with peaks and valleys and such a drive that you can’t help but strap in for it all, while not wanting it to end.

Lush and cinematic, with the narrative drive and indelible power of Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead andPaul Murray’s The Bee Sting, Ghalen is one of this bestselling, prize-winning writer’s finest achievements.

A group of friends fight to choose their own fates in this trope-savvy, self-referential young adult thriller from the acclaimed author of Their Vicious Games, about a demonic force that acts according to horror movie rules in the spirit of the Scream movies.

Devon is always being left behind by her genius twin sister, Drew. At this point, it’s a fact of life. But Devon has one last plan before Drew leaves for college a whole year early—The Best Summer Ever. After committing to the bit a little too much, the twins and their chaotic circle of friends learn why you don’t ever mess with a Ouija board if you want to actually survive the Best Summer Ever, and soon find themselves being hunted down by…a demon?

But while there’s no mistaking the creeping, venomous figure is not from around here, their method doesn’t feel very demonic at all. In fact, it’s downright human—going after them in typical slasher movie kill order. And that means Devon, the blonde, is up first and her decade-long crush, Yaya, is the Final Girl who must kill or be killed to end the cycle.

Devon has never liked playing by anyone else’s rules though, not even a demon’s, and the longer this goes on, the more she feels Drew and Yaya slipping away from her even as she tries to help them all survive. Can they use their horror movie knowledge to flip the script and become the hunters instead of the hunted? Or will their best summer ever be their last?

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • FINALIST FOR THE DAYTON LITERARY PEACE PRIZE, HURSTON/WRIGHT LEGACY AWARD, AND PEN OPEN BOOK AWARD

NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY: Washington Post, Boston Globe, and NPR

“Magical and dangerous. I could not put it down.”—Tayari Jones, bestselling author of Kin

From the New York Times bestselling author of Bad Feminist and Hunger, a “smart, searing” (Washington Post) novel following a strong-willed Haitian American woman who must survive a brutal kidnapping—now featuring a new foreword by the author

Published to terrific acclaim and a national bestseller, An Untamed State heralded Roxane Gay as a prodigious, arresting talent and one of the preeminent writers working today. 

By all appearances, Mireille Duval Jameson is living the perfect life: she’s the daughter of one of Haiti’s richest sons and has an adoring husband and a precocious infant son. The fairytale ends when Mireille is kidnapped in broad daylight by a gang of heavily armed men in front of her father’s Port-au-Prince estate. Held for ransom, Mireille must endure the torments of a man who calls himself the Commander and who resents everything she represents. 

A powerful, unflinching story of wealth in the face of crushing poverty and the lawless anger that corrupt governments produce, Roxane Gay’s brilliant debut is the tale of one strong-willed woman, and redemption found in the most unexpected of places.