Critically Acclaimed Books

Ranking the Best Fiction Published in 2021 (74 Titles)
View Complete List (more than 1,000 titles)

5 Honors

The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois

by Honoree Fanonne Jeffers

5 Honors

The Sweetness of Water

by Nathan Harris

4 Honors

The Sellout

by Paul Beatty

3 Honors

The Personal Librarian

by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray

3 Honors

Praise Song for the Widow

by Paule Marshall

3 Honors

The Final Revival of Opal & Nev

by Dawnie Walton

3 Honors

Yellow Wife

by Sadeqa Johnson

2 Honors

Black Bottom Saints (Paperback)

by Alice Randall

2 Honors

The Chaneysville Incident: A Novel

by David Bradley

2 Honors

Magic City: A Novel

by Jewell Parker Rhodes

2 Honors

The Between

by Tananarive Due

2 Honors

While Justice Sleeps

by Stacey Abrams aka Selena Montgomery

2 Honors

The Prophets

by Robert Jones, Jr.

2 Honors

The Ones Who Don’t Say They Love You: Stories

by Maurice Carlos Ruffin

2 Honors

Palmares

by Gayl Jones

2 Honors

My Monticello: Fiction

by Jocelyn Nicole Johnson

2 Honors

Wild Women and the Blues

by Denny S. Bryce

2 Honors

The Girl with the Louding Voice

by Abi Daré

2 Honors

Seven Days in June

by Tia Williams

2 Honors

The Man Who Lived Underground

by Richard Wright

2 Honors

Creatures of Passage

by Morowa Yejide

2 Honors

The Trees

by Percival Everett

2 Honors

In Every Mirror She’s Black

by Lola Akinmade Akerstrom

2 Honors

The Other Black Girl

by Zakiya Dalila Harris

1 Honors

Lakewood

by Megan Giddings

1 Honors

The Coyotes of Carthage

by Steven Wright

1 Honors

Infinitum: An Afrofuturist Tale

by Tim Fielder

1 Honors

The Best American Short Stories 2021

by Jesmyn Ward

1 Honors

White Man’s Justice

by Donald Goines

1 Honors

The Rib King

by Ladee Hubbard

1 Honors

The Rib King

by Ladee Hubbard

1 Honors

Whoreson

by Donald Goines

1 Honors

Ramadan Ramsey

by Louis Edwards

1 Honors

The Minister Primarily

by John Oliver Killens

1 Honors

Black Girls Must Die Exhausted

by Jayne Allen

1 Honors

Passing (Movie Tie-In)

by Nella Larsen

1 Honors

Blood Grove

by Walter Mosley

1 Honors

Alice in Dreamland

by Roland S. Jefferson

1 Honors

Hell of a Book

by Jason Mott

1 Honors

Noor

by Nnedi Okorafor

1 Honors

Milk Blood Heat

by Dantiel W. Moniz

1 Honors

Gone Missing in Harlem

by Karla FC Holloway

1 Honors

Harlem Hit & Run (2nd Ed.)

by Angela Dews

1 Honors

Blacktop Wasteland (paperback)

by S. A. Cosby

1 Honors

Razorblade Tears

by S. A. Cosby

1 Honors

And Then There Was Me: A Novel

by Sadeqa Johnson

1 Honors

Rosie’s Curl and Weave

by Rochelle Alers, Donna Hill, Felicia Mason, and Francis Ray

1 Honors

A Glimmer of Death

by Valerie Wilson Wesley

1 Honors

Dopefiend

by Donald Goines

1 Honors

The Son of Mr. Suleman

by Eric Jerome Dickey

1 Honors

Fifty Words for Rain

by Asha Lemmie

1 Honors

A Strange Loop

by Michael R. Jackson

1 Honors

This Life

by Quntos Kunquest

1 Honors

Monster in the Middle

by Tiphanie Yanique

1 Honors

Nazaré

by JJ Amaworo Wilson

1 Honors

Pleasantview

by Celeste Mohammed

1 Honors

Limitation of Life

by d. E. Rogers

1 Honors

The Perishing

by Natashia Deón

1 Honors

Waiting for the Waters to Rise

by Maryse Conde

1 Honors

Moon and the Mars

by Kia Corthron

1 Honors

Open Door Marriage

by Naleighna Kai

1 Honors

The Man Across Eight Mile

by D’Andre Walker

1 Honors

Fool Me Thrice: Money Changes Everything

by Dean Conan

1 Honors

Black Sci-Fi Short Stories

by Tia Ross

1 Honors

Young Blood

by Sifiso Mzobe

1 Honors

Friday Foster: The Sunday Strips

by Jim Lawrence

1 Honors

What Storm, What Thunder

by Myriam J. A. Chancy

1 Honors

Life After Death

by Sister Souljah

1 Honors

Look for Me and I’ll Be Gone: Stories

by John Edgar Wideman

1 Honors

Long Division

by Kiese Laymon

1 Honors

We Are Not Like Them

by Christine Pride and Jo Piazza

1 Honors

This Hoe Got Roaches In Her Crib: An Urban Satire

by Quan Millz

1 Honors

Harlem Hit & Run

by Angela Dews

1 Honors

Killens Review of Arts & Letters (Fall / Winter 2021): The Beautiful Struggle

by Clarence V. Reynolds