From the landmark writer and activist of the Harlem Renaissance, Alice Dunbar Nelson, A Carnival Jangle is a powerful and unflinching collection of stories inspired by her early life in New Orleans.

These are stories of love, betrayal and fortitude, peopled by an array of vivid characters whose dramas bring alive Creole life in the late nineteenth century.

Women must walk a tightrope between respectability and desire in stories such as 'A Carnival Jangle'. Poverty is tackled head-on in the moving stories 'M'sieu Fortier’s Violin' and 'Little Miss Sophie', whilst Catholic faith mixed with Creole spirituality looms large in 'The Goodness of St. Rocque and Odalie'.

This series of pocket-sized paperbacks celebrates the art of the short story and marks Macmillan Collector's Library's 10th anniversary. Each contains a curated selection of short stories from a literary giant: Katherine Mansfield, Arthur Conan Doyle, Edgar Allen Poe, Oscar Wilde, Jane Austen, James, Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Alice Dunbar Nelson, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Rabindranath Tagore.

From the Washington Post’s first race and ethnicity reporter, a poignant investigation into the aftermath of the Great Migration, the promise of a Second Great Migration, and what future Black communities could look like across America in this eye-opening and thoughtful study, a mix of The Warmth of Other Suns and How the Word Is Passed.

Since the 1990s, demographers have been documenting a new Great Migration: millions of Black Americans leaving Northern and Western cities for the South their parents and grandparents fled during Jim Crow. Huge numbers of Black people have been moving to Memphis, Houston, Charlotte, and other booming metropolises in the hopes of recreating the vibrant communities their grandparents once left. Have they found what they were looking for? Is it possible for Black Americans to have community, economic prosperity, and safety all in one place? And if so, where?

In the Search for Black Mecca, Emmanuel Felton examines how these questions are playing out in real lives today, going into the homes of Black Americans who are weighing what they want and where they hope to find it. He identifies three archetypes—“Those Who Stay,” “Those Who Leave,” and “Those Who Build Something New”—and reveals the costs and benefits of each decision, while seeking answers to deeper questions regarding communal responsibility, what’s needed to make Black neighborhoods thrive, and how to manage the fact that white people are often threatened by Black success. He also unravels his own family’s migration story through the lives of his two grandfathers—a prominent New Orleans dentist and a troubled musician who migrated to Oakland, California.

Through these stories, Felton crystalizes our understanding of what it means to find—or to create —our own meccas: radical spaces for Black joy, freedom, and imagination, even when the external world tries to take those places away.

A New York Times Notable Book

The Pulitzer Prize-winning critic investigates the roles of race and sex in his own life and in literary history.

Daring and fiercely original, The Women is at once a memoir, a psychological study, a sociopolitical manifesto, and an incisive adventure in literary criticism. It is conceived as a series of portraits analyzing the role that sexual and racial identity played in the lives and work of the writer's subjects: his mother, a self-described "Negress," who would not be defined by the limitations of race and gender; the mother of Malcolm X, whose mixed-race background and eventual descent into madness contributed to her son's misogyny and racism; brilliant, Harvard-educated Dorothy Dean, who rarely identified with other Black people or women, but deeply empathized with white gay men; and the late Owen Dodson, a poet and dramatist who was female-identified and who played an important role in the author's own social and intellectual formation.

Hilton Als submits both racial and sexual stereotypes to his inimitable scrutiny with relentless humor and sympathy. The results are exhilarating. Written in 1996, long before the rise of the genre-defying memoir, The Women was a prescient work of criticism and self-investigation whose clear-eyed insight still feels fresh and urgent to this day. The Women is that rarest of books: a memorable work of self-investigation that created a form all its own.

One word is about to change everything you believe about yourself.

From sought-after coach, speaker, and author Wemi Opakunle, whose content has reached millions, a transformative guide to harnessing the power of “delulu” thinking—radical self-belief paired with bold, inspired action—to create the life, career, and opportunities you want.

For years, we've been told to be realistic, lower our expectations, and wait until we're fully qualified, fully prepared, or fully confident before going after what we want. But what if everything we've been taught is backwards? What if delulu belief is the bridge between who you are and who you want to be?

In BIG. DELULU. ENERGY., Wemi Opakunle introduces an unapologetic, powerful new approach to personal growth built on self-belief, intentional action, and the courage to think bigger than your current circumstances. Far from denying reality, “delulu” thinking is about refusing to let your fears, limitations, or past experiences define what’s possible for your future.

Through her transformative Eight Pillars of Delulu Success, Wemi shows you how to:
* Build unshakable confidence and trust yourself more deeply
* Stop waiting for certainty and move before you're ready
* Transform fear, setbacks, and self-doubt into fuel for growth
* Embody the mindset and emotions of the person you want to become
* Release perfectionism and detach from outcomes you can’t control
* Silence your inner critic and separate your identity from your inner dialogue to create lasting self-worth
* Reinvent yourself at any stage of life and create a future that feels aligned, joyful, and expansive
* Challenge the labels that have been placed on you, including the ones you've placed on yourself

Warm, practical, and passionately encouraging, BIG. DELULU. ENERGY. offers a refreshing alternative to self-help rooted in hustle and perfectionism. This is a guide to betting on yourself, embracing possibility, and becoming the person you’ve always imagined you could be.

DELUXE LIMITED EDITION first printing featuring stenciled edges

The LONG AWAITED adult debut novel by beloved NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING Dhonielle Clayton: a romantic contemporary fantasy novel set in New Orleans, about a woman pulled back into a forbidden love, kicking off a brand new series

Collette Marchand never wanted to return home to the immortal wards of New Orleans, let alone inherit her mother’s blood-soaked business. Collette left magic and a great love behind a decade ago, tucking herself away in Boston. But now, her mother, Lady Red, the living Conjure Saint and matriarch of the most notorious Conjure House, has died for the final time.

Back in New Orleans, Téo Baptiste is stuck. He’s working at the same hospital where, ten years ago, he lost everything – his sobriety and the love of his life, Collette. Nights at the busiest ER in the city help him bury his feelings and ignore his magical destiny to take over the undead immortal ward. But Lady Red’s death might be his chance to make things right with Collette again, and build a new future for himself.

When Collette is summoned back home to bury her mother, she uncovers Lady Red’s greatest secret: the true source of her power is a stolen card from the Deck of Life. A card that, along with the family business, passes to Collette. Determined to rewrite the past, Collette needs help from the last person she wants to see ever again: her former flame and the man who shattered her heart, Téo. Now, Collette must confront whether she’s destined to become the next Lady Red and rule over the immortal wards of New Orleans and beyond … or take a second chance at love.

Enter St. Paradise, a city pulsing with blood magic, where clan secrets and shifting allegiances rule the land. For the first time, bestselling novelist Akwaeke Emezi brings their powerful talents to epic fantasy!

Ten years ago, Eclipse Orinabe and her aunt, Silver, were the sole survivors of a massacre that nearly wiped out their clan.

Then the Orinabe unleash their revenge: the annihilation of the clans who betrayed them, and the release of rapture, a drug so potent that the clan—once peaceful pharmaceutical makers—soon have St. Paradise in a chokehold.

Disturbed by the Orinabe’s bloody rise, the surviving clan leaders nonetheless make nice with Silver, known as the Butcher, and accept Eclipse—a weapon disguised as a glamorous clan princess—into society.

With the foundations of St. Paradise trembling, one spark will set the city aflame. And embers are everywhere: Wolf, Heir to the Goldshot clan, is on the run from his own people, armed with holy golden bullets. He claims sanctuary with Clan Heron, spies so secretive that no one knows their true Heir.

Noah, Heir to the psychic Solarin clan, is pushed into a consuming relationship with Eclipse by his clan leaders. But neither Heir is what the other thinks—and the secret Noah is keeping is powerful enough to blink out St. Paradise’s entire existence in an instant.

An ancient magic ties these clans together and a brutal reckoning will come as the Heirs collide and claim their fraught inheritance.

Emotionally rich, explosively thrilling, and finely wrought as all of Emezi’s work, their new standalone novel is perfect for fans of the author or Fonda Lee, R.F. Kuang, and V.E. Schwab.

FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE COURAGE TO BE DISLIKED

What if real love isn’t a feeling to fall into, but a choice to be made? Find the courage to embrace the love you truly deserve—without fear of judgment, inadequacy, or rejection.

In The Courage to Love, celebrated philosopher and bestselling author Ichiro Kishimi invites us to question the myths about love that keep us searching for happiness in the wrong places. Stepping beyond the thrill of new romance, and drawing on the psychological insights of Alfred Adler, Kishimi presents love—in partnerships, families, and friendships—as an active commitment, a brave choice we must make every day to foster our growth and others'.

Whether you are single, dating, in a long-term relationship, or navigating the challenges of family life, Kishimi offers a new perspective on building fulfilling relationships. Readers will:

* Disentangle love from control, approval, and self-sacrifice and instead discover the foundations of equality in relationships
* Escape the trap of striving to be liked and to "earn" love
* Practice practical techniques for communication, conflict resolution, and intimacy through all stages of a relationship
* Learn to understand and practice authentic love, not as dependency, but as an act of freedom and mutual respect

The Courage to Love is an invitation to transform how you understand love, moving from a desire to be chosen to the powerful choice to love well.

A New York Times Notable Book

A landmark reinterpretation of the civil rights movement that challenges reductive heroic narratives of the 1950s and 1960s and invigorates new debates and possibilities for the future of the struggle for liberation.

We are all familiar with the romantic vision of the civil rights movement: Heroic African Americans and their allies courageously triumphed over racial oppression, forging a new consensus in American life and law. What are the effects of this celebratory storytelling? What happens when a living revolt against injustice becomes an embalmed museum piece?

In this innovative work, Brandon Terry rejects the authority of the romantic narrative―the “arc of justice” story found in popular histories, the speeches of Barack Obama, and the writings of John Rawls―while also pushing back against the rival ironic mode of Afropessimism. Though sympathetic to the critiques of Afropessimists, Terry ultimately finds their thought self-undermining.

Instead of romance or irony, he argues, the civil rights movement is best understood through the lens of tragedy. By challenging the attachment to triumphant pasts, Terry demonstrates that tragedy exemplifies what the civil rights movement has been and can still be. Provocative and original, Shattered Dreams, Infinite Hope offers optimism without naïveté, to train our judgment and resilience in the face of reasonable despair.

From the author of the acclaimed novel, House of Cotton, comes an electric, haunting new Southern noir following the residents of Better Tomorrow Trailer Park in the aftermath of a gruesome murder.

Summer ’97. Deadly sins. Misguided obsessions.

When Better Tomorrow Trailer Park’s owner, Joe Candle, is found nailed to a cross in the center of the lot, the police have one question for the park’s eccentric residents: Who killed Candle?

No one is safe from suspicion. Not the pretty, calf-eyed cashier with a shadowed past, or the barber and his strange, altered demeanor, or the young son of a cop who harbors a volcanic temper.

As the investigation begins and satanic panic grips this small town in the heart of Appalachia, the low-grade paranoia spreads beyond the borders of the park. With the arrival of a lone, mysterious detective, a darker plot is soon unearthed. The questions that arise threaten the very existence of Better Tomorrow, and the community is tested to its breaking point.

Thundering towards the dreaded summer solstice, Lonesome Holler is a beautifully written exploration of loneliness, a blue-tuned elegy for community, and a comedic, devastating ode to the South.

For the first time ever, one of the world’s most iconic business leaders shares the story of his remarkable life and career.

Ken Chenault has lived his life at the confluence of the historical forces that have shaped modern America, keenly aware of both the burdens of its past and the dynamic potential of its future. Born in 1951, when segregation was still inscribed in the laws of the land, he ascended to the peak of corporate America over the course of the next fifty years. In his thoughtful and wide-ranging memoir, Chenault reflects on his personal journey, the mentors who shaped him, and his lifelong quest to realize his own potential and make a meaningful difference in people’s lives. Equal to the Task is a classic American story for our times.

After joining American Express, Chenault steadily worked his way up to the very top. He led the company for almost two decades, driving market-leading innovations, before stepping down and making another surprising life choice. Eschewing the more traditional roles for former CEOs, he joined a dynamic venture capital firm, seeking to help build enduring companies that leverage technology for both profit and purpose. Over the past years, he has continued to be a steady voice of moral clarity in the public and private sectors.

“In these pages, I share how I managed the opportunities and challenges encountered over the course of my life and career. In doing so, I hope to convey the values I hold most dear. Values passed down to me by my ancestors, my parents, my teachers, my heroes, and my mentors. These values have guided me throughout my journey, and I consider them pivotal to meeting these extraordinary times as my country wrestles with its own identity, its future, and its role in the 21st century.”

Winner of the Bancroft Prize
Winner of the David J. Langum Prize
Winner of the Merle Curti Social History Award
Finalist for the Cundill History Prize 2026

A revelatory history of the laws that conditioned the everyday lives of Chinese people in the American West―and of those who negotiated, circumvented, and resisted discrimination.

Legal discrimination against Chinese people in the United States began in 1852, with a California tax on foreign gold miners that was explicitly designed to exploit Chinese labor. In the ensuing decades, California, Oregon, Washington, and other western states instituted more than five thousand laws that marginalized and controlled Chinese residents. Long before the Chinese Exclusion Act banned Chinese immigration, these laws constrained the activities and opportunities of Chinese people already living in the United States.

In this eye-opening account, Beth Lew-Williams describes a legal architecture redolent of Jim Crow but tailored to the people whom official records often referred to only as “John Doe Chinaman” and “Mary Chinaman.” Enforced by police, tax collectors, schoolteachers, missionaries, and neighbors, these laws severely limited Chinese access to American society. Cementing stereotypes of Chinese as criminals, invaders, and predators, states regulated everything from healthcare and property ownership to business formation and kinship customs. Yet Chinese communities reacted resourcefully. Many fought, evaded, and manipulated racist laws, finding ways to maintain prohibited traditions, resist unfair treatment in court, and insist on their political rights.

Revealing the depth of anti-Chinese discrimination beyond federal exclusion, John Doe Chinaman tells the stories of those who refused to accept a conditional place in American life.

An eloquent, prize-winning historian chronicles the rise of Black enterprise in America.

Entrepreneurs like Booker T. Washington and Madam C.J. Walker are familiar figures in the history of Black business. But from the hopeful dawn of emancipation to the crucible of Jim Crow, from rural Mound Bayou, Mississippi, to the bustling blocks of Harlem, many others built extraordinary businesses in pursuit of prosperity and freedom. Nevertheless, their efforts to pursue the American Dream were steadily undermined by people intent on profiting on their innovations and reining in their opportunities. Award-winning historian Shennette Garrett-Scott reveals the everyday genius of the people who refused to accept exclusion as identity: former slaves turned cotton mill owners, washerwomen turned financiers, and self-taught visionaries who built banks, real estate empires, and grocery store chains. Their successes were real, but ventures that promised economic independence often provoked backlash as white elites, politicians, and vigilantes tried to contain Black success. Even the boldest dreams often buckled under the combined weight of limited resources and state obstruction.

A daring tale, lyrically told, The Business of Freedom reveals the history, strengths, and weaknesses of Black capitalism as a strategy for both individual and collective empowerment and shows why free enterprise alone could never deliver the freedom its champions promised.

26 illustrations