Seattle Picks: Black American Fiction
Including literary fiction, crime, romance, science fiction and more, here's a wide ranging list of recent fiction written by Black American authors. Annotations from NoveList, unless otherwise attributed. (March 2026)
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Isaac's Song
Encouraged by his therapist to write down his story, a young, queer Black man describes the details and circumstances of his life, from growing up with a difficult father to finding community in 1980s Chicago.
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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It's Elementary
When a Southern California elementary school principal vanishes, an overworked single parent suspects a domineering PTA president of foul play. (Kirkus)
Format: Book
Availability: All copies in use
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One of Us Knows
A woman with dissociative identity disorder finds herself at the site of the childhood trauma that caused her break, fighting for survival against threats both external and internal. (Kirkus)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Devils Kill Devils
When her guardian angel, Angelo, murders someone she loves, Sarita begins to see what's really been lurking in the shadows surrounding her, and she will have to embrace the evil within if she hopes to make it out alive.
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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King of Ashes
When eldest son Roman Carruthers is summoned home to Jefferson Run, Virginia after his father’s car accident, he finds his younger brother, Dante, in debt to dangerous criminals and his sister, Neveah, exhausted from holding the family—and the family crematorium business—together...mortality draws even closer when it becomes clear that the crash that landed their father in a coma was no accident and Dante’s recklessness has placed them all in real danger.
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Champagne Taste on A Bad Boy Budget
Jamilah Carver’s dream restaurant is drowning in debt and missing a chef—until Rashad White, a newly freed ex-con and culinary genius, walks in.
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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James
Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as told from the perspective of a more resourceful and contemplative Jim than the one you remember. (Kirkus)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Great Black Hope
A young Black man is caught between worlds of race and class, glamour and tragedy a friend's mysterious death and his own arrest.
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Long After We Are Gone
Told from alternating points of view from all four siblings, this emotional story about the power of family and letting go, follows CeCe, Junior, Nance and Angeline, each fighting their own personal battles, as they return home to save their ancestral land--and themselves--after the death of their father.
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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A Little Kissing Between Friends
In this wonderful sapphic romance, Higgins portrays an upbeat and plausible friends-to-lovers relationship. (Publishers Weekly)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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