20 Bestselling Nonfiction Books

Period: March/April - 2021

Celebrating Black stories and authors since 1998, the AALBC Bestsellers List is now published quarterly. Here’s a printable list and collage of this period’s titles. Also check out the BLK Bestsellers—the definitive monthly guide to America’s bestselling books by Black writers.

Fiction: Richard Wright’s previously unpublished novel, The Man Who Lived Underground, is our bestselling fiction title. The Man Who Lived Underground was written between his landmark books Native Son (1940) and Black Boy (1945), at the height of Wright’s creative powers.

Nonfiction: Black Power, Black Lawyer: My Audacious Quest for Justice, Nkechi Taifa’s powerful memoir, outsold all other books this period and was given a rave review by AALBC.

Children’s Books: The 11-time AALBC bestseller, Whose Knees Are These?, by Jabari Asim led a very crowded field of popular children’s books. We cap our bestsellers list at 20 books, and our children’s list could have easily included 40 titles.

Poetry: The Tradition by Jericho Brown debuts on our bestsellers list at #1. The critically acclaimed work received many honors including winning a Pulitzer Prize.