21 Bestselling Poetry Books

Period: Full Year - 2023

AALBC Bestseller Seal
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.

These books are the bestsellers of all our bestselling books for entire year! The newest book considered was Only for the Brave at Heart: Essays Rethinking Race, Crime, and Justice by Leon E. Pettiway (Dec 14, 2023). The oldest was No Place to be Somebody: A Black-black Comedy (1969) by Charles Gordone.

1
Three Pieces

Three Pieces

by Ntozake Shange
2
1919

1919

by Eve L. Ewing
Add to Cart
4
Never As Strangers

Never As Strangers

by Laini Mataka
Add to Cart
5
Above Ground

Above Ground

by Clint Smith
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7
Leadbelly

Leadbelly

by Tyehimba Jess
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8
The Oxford Anthology of African-American Poetry

The Oxford Anthology of African-American Poetry

by Arnold Rampersad and Hilary Herbold
10
Dream of a Word: The Tia Chucha Press Poetry Anthology

Dream of a Word

by Quraysh Ali Lansana and Toni Asante Lightfoot
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11
Blessing The Boats: New And Selected Poems 1988-2000 (American Poets Continuum)

Blessing The Boats

by Lucille Clifton
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13
Life On Mars: Poems

Life On Mars

by Tracy K. Smith
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14
Mother Love: Poems

Mother Love

by Rita Dove
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15
Hipology: Horizons in Poetry

Hipology

by Ron Alle and Stella Crews
16
Magic City

Magic City

by Yusef Komunyakaa
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17
Afrodisia;: New poems

Afrodisia;

by Ted Joans
18
Call Us What We Carry: Poems

Call Us What We Carry

by Amanda Gorman
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19
S O S: Poems 1961-2013

S O S

by Amiri Baraka
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21
Black Poetry

Black Poetry

by Dudley Randall