20 Bestselling Fiction Books
Period: March/April - 2021
Celebrating books written by or about Black people, the African American Literature Book Club’s Bestsellers List has been published continuously since 1998. In 2026, we began publishing our list quarterly, focusing on The BLK Bestsellers.
Fiction: Richard Wright’s previously unpublished novel, The Man Who Lived Underground, is our bestselling fiction title.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.
