16 Bestselling Nonfiction Books
Period: November/December - 2021
Celebrating books written by or about Black people, the African American Literature Book Club’s Bestsellers List has been published continuously since 1998 (Learn More ▶). In 2026, we began publishing our list quarterly, focusing our efforts on America’s top-selling titles: The BLK Bestsellers.
Fiction: The Zora Neale Hurston Boxed Set was an AALBC bestseller even before its publication date. The 10-book boxed set features the best of Hurston’s fiction and nonfiction in one impressive package.
Nonfiction: Nikole Hannah-Jones’ The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story was the #1 bestselling book across all genres this period. This does not include the many copies of the book sold as a result of our collaboration with Bookshop.org to support the New York based not-for-profit organization, The Literary Freedom Project.
Children’s Books: Born on the Water, which is also part of The 1619 Project was our top selling children’s book. Illustrated by Nikkolas Smith and written by Nikole Hannah-Jones and Renée Watson, Born on the Water was one also of our most popular books of the year.
Poetry: Amanda Gorman’ Call Us What We Carry: Poems helps make Gorman one of AALBC’s all-time bestselling authors.
More About our Bestsellers List
View a printer-friendly version or a collage of the book covers.
You will learn about books selling well in the Black community that may never show up on lists published by corporate entities. Spread the word about our list; don’t let one or two lists, which we don’t control, determine which books are important.
We collect our bestselling titles from all our sales channels. The majority of our sales come from this website and our in-person events. We also include sales generated through our affiliate relationships, including Bookshop.org, Libro.fm (audiobooks), and Amazon.com*.
*For a few years, we actively boycotted Amazon but have discontinued this practice to ensure we do not exclude authors who are exclusive to that platform. We still discourage exclusivity but support all Black authors.
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