The QBR 100 Essential Black Books
from Sacred Fire

The titles featured below were compiled in Sacred Fire: The QBR 100 Essential Black Books, published in 1999 by QBR: The Black Book Review. To create the list, QBR assembled a distinguished panel of scholars, historians, authors, and booksellers to identify the works that had made the greatest impact across generations. The result is an exceptional collection of 100 works spanning poetry, short fiction, novels, drama, autobiography, and history.

No list of 100 books can capture the full breadth of Black literature. For a contemporary companion to the Sacred Fire collection, explore AALBC’s newly compiled list of 100 Essential Adult Fiction Books by Black Writers.

The Sacred Fire titles below are arranged alphabetically. You may also view a printable list of all 100 books.