5 Bestselling Poetry Books
Period: March/April - 2023
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 literary magazines Killens Review of Arts & Letters and midnight & indigo dominated our bestsellers lists this period. Coleman Hill: A Biomythography by Kim Coleman Foote — six months before its publication date!
Nonfiction:
Reparations on Fire: How and Why it’ss Spreading Across America by Nkechi Taifa has been a #1 bestseller since its publication last year.
Children’s Books:
The #1 bestselling book, Sailing Commitment Around the World with Captain Bill Pinkney, written by Bill Pinkney and illustrated by Pamela C. Rice, is a six-time AALBC.com Bestseller.
Poetry:
2023 has been one of the best years for poetry book sales in several years. The bestselling poetry books this period spans more than four decades from Ntozake Shange’s Three Pieces, originally published in 1981, to Clint Smith’s 2023 book of poetry Above Ground.
More About our Bestsellers List
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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.