It has taken too long, but the world is finally waking up to the incredible world of Black authors. Iconic names such as Octavia Butler, Zadie Smith, and Zora Neale Hurston have earned their spotlight onto the public sphere, while famous titles like I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (Maya Angelou) and Invisible Man (Ralph Ellison) have rightly made ground in top lists the world over. Initiatives such as Black History Month have dragged race issues onto the world stage, while the literary landscape is filled with upcoming Black authors such as Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give), Tomi Adeyemi (Legacy of Orisha), Yaa Gyasi (Homegoing) and more. There is no excuse not to dig into the best audiobooks by Black authors, starting with the 10 listed below. Happy listening!
Canadian author Zalika Reid-Benta burst onto the scene with her 2019 short story collection Frying Plantain, a series of events that told the tale of a Jamaican-Canadian girl growing up in Eglinton West, Toronto. Of course, that collection is inspired by Reid-Benta's own childhood experiences as a Black girl in Canada's largest city, a direct response to enjoying works of fiction but not seeing herself represented in the best sellers of the time. With this in mind, Toronto-born Zalika Reid-Benta set out to write the stories that she wanted to read in her youth.
Frying Plantain is the result. Fantastically narrated by fellow Toronto-native Ordena Stephens-Thomson, this audio collection of short stories introduces the listener to Kara Davis, a girl caught between two cultures growing up in a Black community in a predominantly white city. Reid-Benta's honesty and frank approach to Kara's reality are the standout features of the collection, making for an engaging and important listen from beginning to end.
There is plenty more to come from Zalika Reid-Benta. The multi-award-winning Frying Plantain promises to be the first step in a very long career for one of the most exciting Black authors in Canada, a world superstar-in-waiting with the world at her fingertips. This is only the beginning.
Born and raised in Alabama but now living in New York City, Jeffrey Colvin became a celebrated name overnight with the release of his debut novel, Africville (2019). Narrated by Audie Award winner and Audible favourite Robin Miles, Africville tells the real-life story of a town on the outskirts of Halifax (Nova Scotia) that has been settled by a group of previously enslaved people, a town from which the tale takes its title. Gorgeously narrated by Miles, this audiobook is as much about the complexity of family as it is the Black Canadian experience, with no small amount of resilience and stubbornness in the middle of it all.
Colvin's road from obscurity to celebrated African American writer hasn't been the most obvious route. Five years in the United States Marine Corps led to life as a teacher in New York, a role that allowed Colvin to work on his debut novel. The story in question is a triptych that conjures up connections between the experiences of Black people in Canada and America, a piece of historical fiction that showcases both a fabulously talented Black author and an often-overlooked portion of history.
Jeffrey Colvin's ability to dissect and interact with identity, relationships, history and the future have earmarked him as an author to watch in the coming years. Africville is a fantastic place to start, expertly narrated by the beloved Robin Miles, the voice of more than 350 Audible titles already.
Narrated by the Canadian Scarborough-native himself, I've Been Meaning to Tell You is a stunning first foray into the world of non-fiction by David Chariandy. This short but stunning listen is delivered in the form of a letter from Chariandy to his 13-year-old daughter about the Black experience, from slavery and indenture to modern racism and prejudice. The son of working-class immigrants himself, Chariandy takes his experiences as a Black man and transposes them to the future life of a Black woman, in this instance his daughter.
The author's narration raises the bar as well, making this must-read book a must-listen as well. With his first two pieces of fiction (2007's Soucouyant and 2017's Brother), David Chariandy set himself out as a Black author of authority and picked up many awards in the process, the latter taking home the Toronto Book Award in 2018, but it is his latest work that hits the hardest. When David Chariandy speaks, listening is the only option.
Chariandy is slowly becoming one of the most authoritative Black authors of his generation, as he continues to bring his experiences growing up as the son of immigrants in Scarborough to the wider world. I've Been Meaning to Tell You has been likened to works by Ta-Nehisi Coates and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and the lofty company is very much deserved.
No discussion about the best Black authors is complete without bringing Canadian author Esi Edugyan into the conversation. The Calgary-native has been blazing revolutionary trails in literature since the publication of her debut novel (The Second Life of Samuel Tyne) way back in 2004, with two more novels and a celebrated piece of non-fiction released in the years since. The overuse of the word 'powerful' has rendered it somewhat redundant in most cases, but Edugyan's forceful characters and impactful stories demand the full meaning of the word.
Washington Black is Esi Edugyan's latest release, magically narrated here by multi-time Audie Award winner and critically-acclaimed actor Dion Graham. The audiobook focuses on two eccentric English brothers who arrive at a Barbados plantation with darkness and ideas aplenty, as well as the eleven-year-old eponymous character who finds his life intertwined with the wild ideas of the brothers. What follows is a stunning story full of complex yet believable characters, punctuated by Edugyan's now trademark magisterial style.
Graham is a tremendous narrator but Edugyan's storytelling is the real star. There's no great surprise there, as the two-time winner of the Giller Prize has almost become a byword for excellence in the world of literature. Put simply, Esi Edugyan is one of the best Black authors on the planet today.
No audiobook collection is complete without a healthy dose of Toni Morrison. Arguably the most iconic Black author of the 20th century, Morrison has blazed a trail for authors all across the world, from her debut novel The Bluest Eye (1970) to her death in 2019 and beyond. Toni Morrison's place in the international literary Hall of Fame is a given.
Morrison narrates many of her audiobooks herself, proving once again that there is no better storyteller than the person who penned the tale. Beloved is arguably her most impactful and famous work, originally published in 1987 and winning the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction a year later. Beloved tells the story of Sethe and the tragic death of her daughter, although the daughter in question is not gone entirely. That will have to do, as saying any more would be spoiling the story.
Whatever the award or acclaim, Toni Morrison has received it. A New York Times bestseller and Nobel Prize for Literature award winner, few authors have as expertly detailed the lives of Black Americans as succinctly as the icon from Lorain, Ohio. One of the most important Black women in modern history? You better believe it.
An absolute must-listen. Now available in audiobook form (superbly narrated by Ron Butler), James Baldwin's seminal collection of essays is an absolute must for anyone looking to get a deeper understanding of the issues of race across the world. One of the great must-reads of the Black autobiographical genre, Ron Butler's narration ensures that Notes of a Native Son is also very much a must-listen.
Born in Harlem, New York City in the middle of the 1920s, James Baldwin spent much of his childhood reading in libraries, hoping to both enhance his acumen and escape the persecution experienced outside. The collection that became known as Notes of a Native Son began on the day of his step-father's funeral in 1943, a day that just so happened to coincide with the famous Harlem Riots. The audiobook very much starts as it means to go on, and it doesn't take long to understand why James Baldwin is one of the most important Black voices of the 20th century.
Baldwin's essays take in everything from the civil rights movement to Jim Crow laws, street activism and more, coming together as a must-listen that acts as the perfect introduction to one of the most important African American voices in modern history. A true master of the essay form, James Baldwin's influence and legacy promise to live on long into the future.
Winner of the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, The Nickel Boys is the latest in a long line of must-reads from one of the great geniuses of African American fiction. Colson Whitehead helps to narrate the audiobook version of The Nickel Boys, further reasoning if it were needed to give in to temptation and embrace one of the modern era's great Black authors.
The author of eight novels (including 2016's The Underground Railroad and 2021's The Harlem Shuffle), Colson Whitehead has been knocking down doors and blowing away expectations since the publication of his debut novel in 1999. The Nickel Boys is more of the same, the story of two boys who find themselves unjustly locked away at a terrifying reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida. This makes for a difficult yet important listen, expertly narrated by Whitehead and JD Jackson.
Whitehead is a master of portraying the Black American experience in his fiction. In many ways, Whitehead can be considered one of the great historical fiction authors of our time, and it is no great shock that his best books have become bestselling audiobooks as well. A winner of everything from the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction to the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction, Colson Whitehead is an absolute must.
When former US President Barack Obama comes out and declares something to be one of his favourite books of the year, people tend to stand up and take notice. That accolade was bestowed upon The Vanishing Half (2020), a New York Times bestseller from the genius pen of Brit Bennett. The audiobook version is narrated by New York-based Shayna Small, adding another string of charisma to an already stacked bow.
Brit Bennett has been making waves since the release of her 2014 essay, I Don't Know What to Do With Good White People. That piece of non-fiction launched the Oceanside, California-native into the mainstream, and there was more to come. The Mothers (Bennett's debut novel) was published to critical acclaim in 2016, but that was nothing compared to the excitement and celebration generated by The Vanishing Half. A television adaptation of the novel was all-but confirmed just a month after its publication.
No modern reading list (and listening list, for that matter) is complete without a healthy amount of Brit Bennett on it. One of the most exciting young authors in America, Bennett is going to be a household name for years to come. Get in on the ground floor with the audiobook version of The Vanishing Half; if it is good enough for Barack Obama, it is good enough for you.
To cut a long story short, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is one of the most important writers in the world today and undoubtedly one of the most influential Black women of the modern era. Author of seven books (including 2003's Purple Hibiscus and 2014's influential essay We Should All Be Feminists) and a host of short stories, Adichie has won a host of awards across the world throughout her three-decade (and counting) long career.
A long-time feature in book clubs and a constant presence on Amazon's top ten lists, Half of a Yellow Sun is arguably Adichie's most famous work. Narrated by British award-winning actor Zainab Jah (who puts in a fantastic performance), the audiobook is set in 1960s Nigeria. This is a country falling apart at the seams, and Adichie's iconic piece of historical fiction tells this story through the eyes of five compelling characters. One of the most influential novels of the last century, Half of a Yellow Sun is a compelling listen from start to finish.
Compelling is par for the course when it comes to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. The Nigerian author has been pushing the envelope since the publication of her debut novel in 2003 and shows no sign of slowing down, as 2021's memoir Notes on Grief shows. One of the most important Black women in the modern world, Adichie is also one of its most important voices.
Winner of a host of awards including one of Amazon.com 2020’s Best Book of the Year, S.A. Cosby's Blacktop Wasteland is a riotous listen from start to finish. Adam Lazarre-White puts in a stunning performance narrating this Southern Noir take on the classic heist theme, as a proud husband, dad and mechanic are tempted into a jewelry store heist that simply can't go wrong. Does it? You'll just have to listen to find out.
A somewhat mysterious presence on the Atlantic Coast, S.A. Cosby is fast carving himself out a niche as a master of Southern fiction, bringing race, class and sex to the table with the confidence of a more experienced author. Cosby has a way of filling his characters with life that is perfectly balanced for the audiobook experience, and it is no great surprise that his three mystery novels have become Audible favourites almost overnight.
The Gloucester, Virginia-based writer is the head of a new generation of Black authors, reinventing the expectations placed on African American writers and turning stereotypes upside down. That Cosby does so through thrillingly violent tales of excitement and desperation is most definitely cause for listener celebration. Good luck pausing this one.