AALBC Search
Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora
Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora Sheree Renée Thomas Excerpt The Comet by W. E. B. Du Bois (1920) He stood a moment on the steps of the bank, watching th...
Black Girl You Are Atlas
Black Girl You Are Atlas Renée Watson Excerpt at•las | \ ’at-les \ from Merriam-Webster Dictionary 1 capitalized: a Titan who for his part in the Titans’ revolt against the gods ...
Street Sweeper
Street Sweeper Ronin Ro Excerpt I was trying to get him to look me in the eye. But he wouldn’t. Not even when I got one inch from his nose. Nothing. No reaction. That’s the thing abou...
My Love Notes to a Black Man
My Love Notes to a Black Man Lana Reid Excerpt Your Utopia in Me This morning when the alarm rang I was a warm mahogany cocoon that enveloped you A slumbering medley of brown arms and legs wrapp...
Holding Pattern
Holding Pattern Jeffery Renard Allen Excerpt Black flutter, Mamma flashed about the room, workbound, her shiny knee-length black leather boots working against the wood floor like po...
All I Want For Christmas
All I Want For Christmas Joyce A. Brown, Princess F.L. Gooden, Terri Ann Johnson, Sonia Johnston, Patricia Woodside, Cryssy Dee, Candy Jackson, and others Excerpt An excerpt from Terri Ann Johnson&rs...
The Future Has a Past
The Future Has a Past J. California Cooper Excerpt A Shooting Star Now, you don’t know me. And, I know that you know that nobody knows everything. But a person does have to go by whatever ...
Nobody Else Is Better Than You
Nobody Else Is Better Than You Katherine Johnson, Joylette Hylick, and Katherine Moore Excerpt Chapter 1: Nobody Else Is Better Than You The serious look in Daddy’s eyes told me his words w...
A PERFECT WORLD: (A Perry Richards Novel)
A PERFECT WORLD: (A Perry Richards Novel) Bernard Alexander McNealy Excerpt From Chapter 2: On Shaky Ground I moved to the porch baluster…leaning closer to her. ’You aren’t ruling...
Not My Will
Not My Will Khara Campbell Excerpt Prologue “Virtue, your man dogged you and you gonna let him get away with that mess? If I was you, I would be busting some holes in his tires and smashing ou...
Wicked Enchantment: Selected Poems
Wicked Enchantment: Selected Poems Wanda Coleman Excerpt “Wanda Why Aren’t You Dead“ from Wicked Enchantment: Selected Poems “American Sonnet“ from Wicked Ench...
Life, Love & Loneliness
Life, Love & Loneliness Crystal Lacey Winslow Excerpt CHAPTER 3 - LYRIC DEVANEY At 11:00 am sharp, Richard’s black Mercedes- Benz arrived. His driver got out and opened the door and Richard ...
Lifelines: The Black Book Of Proverbs
Lifelines: The Black Book Of Proverbs Askhari Johnson Hodari and Yvonne Mccalla Sobers Excerpt Introduction The tongue of Egyptian experience has the most truth. A lie runs in Cuba only until th...
Hot Johnny (and the Women Who Loved Him)
Hot Johnny (and the Women Who Loved Him) Sandra Jackson-Opoku Excerpt He knew just how to feed them You see all our hungry faces in the photo album of his life. And you wonder. Who is ...
Night Hawks: Stories
Night Hawks: Stories Charles Johnson Excerpt The Weave Three thieves battered through a wall, crawled close to the floor to dodge motion detectors and stole six duffel bags filled with human hair ...
Wake Up Happy: The Dream Big, Win Big Guide to Transforming Your Life
Wake Up Happy: The Dream Big, Win Big Guide to Transforming Your Life Michael Strahan and Veronica Chambers Excerpt WHAT I LEARNED FROM HERSCHEL WALKER Rule #1 Help can—and will—c...
The Angry Ones
The Angry Ones John A. Williams Excerpt You remember a lot of things about a trip across America. You remember the sandstone rocks reared above red and brown plains, the twisted, fiercely shaped arro...
Peace From Broken Pieces: How To Get Through What You’re Going Through
Peace From Broken Pieces: How To Get Through What You’re Going Through Iyanla Vanzant Excerpt It is often difficult to identify the exact moment that your life falls apart. In most cases, it is not a...
The Selling of Joseph
The Selling of Joseph Dieudonne Mayi Excerpt Dedication To African slaves in the Americas, Caribbean, and Europe, the silent and unknown black slave… Your treatment was so in...
Standing Tall
Standing Tall Jake Sloan Excerpt 1 The Culture: Southern Influence at a West Coast Installation, 1930—1961 The year 1961 was the one that a future president of the United States, Barack Husse...
Alain Locke: An Introduction
Alain Locke: An Introduction Charles Molesworth Excerpt ALAIN LOCKE: AN INTRODUCTION(Part 1) Alain Locke established his intellectual brilliance by a lifetime of study ...
Provenance: A Novel
Provenance: A Novel Donna Drew Sawyer Excerpt Prologue Park Place, Virginia - Fall 1909 “Hank, run!” was the last thing he heard Junior say. Deputies struggled to hold and handcuff ...
Dick Gregory’s Natural Diet for Folks Who Eat: Cookin’ with Mother Nature
Dick Gregory’s Natural Diet for Folks Who Eat: Cookin’ with Mother Nature Dick Gregory Excerpt 1Warning: The Author Has Determined That Not Reading the Following Pages Is Dangerous to Your Health ...
Foreword Justice for Marcus Garvey
Foreword Justice for Marcus Garvey Julius Garvey Excerpt Foreword Excerpt by Ta-Nehisi Coates “I grew up in a household where Malcolm X was Jesus, and I guess that would make Garvey God. Gar...
Standing at the Scratch Line
Standing at the Scratch Line Guy Johnson Excerpt LeRoi picked up the rifle that was leaning against a root with its stock in the water. He checked the barrel carefully for obstructions, then mounted ...
Brothers, Lust, and Love: Thoughts on Manhood, Sex, and Romance
Brothers, Lust, and Love: Thoughts on Manhood, Sex, and Romance William July II Excerpt SBF Seeking Mr. Right. Must be 6’3", 215, have a mustache, degree in law or medicine from Ivy Leagu...
A Family Affair
A Family Affair ReShonda Tate Billingsley Excerpt Prologue Everyone that had ever crossed paths with Adele Wells knew that she was not a woman to be crossed. In the nine years that Lorrai...
Dana Dances on Paper
Dana Dances on Paper Darcel Turner Excerpt 10 JAM "Dana," Uncle Jerry commanded, "I don’t know where your mother is, but you betta get upst...
Introduction: The Isley Brothers’ 3+3
Introduction: The Isley Brothers’ 3+3 Darrell M. McNeill Excerpt Introduction The Isley Brothers Are America’s Most Tenured Rock and Roll Group: Deal with it. All you are ever told in this ...
Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned
Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned Walter Mosley Excerpt CHAPTER ONE CRIMSON SHADOW {1.} "What you doin' there, boy?" It was six a.m. Socrates Fortlow had come out to the al...
Wonderful Ethiopians Of The Ancient Cushite Empire, Book 1
Wonderful Ethiopians Of The Ancient Cushite Empire, Book 1 Drusilla Dunjee Houston Excerpt The minds of men today are stirred with eager questionings about the origin of civilization and about ...
On My Journey Now: Looking At African-American History Through The Spirituals
On My Journey Now: Looking At African-American History Through The Spirituals Nikki Giovanni Excerpt America was looking for very, very, very cheap labor, because they wanted workers who were e...
The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother
The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother James McBride Excerpt CHAPTER ONE Dead I’m dead. You want to talk about my family and here I been dead to them for fifty y...
Mama Rocks the Empty Cradle
Mama Rocks the Empty Cradle Nora Deloach Excerpt Carrie Smalls shrugged. "I reckon you think ’cause your job throw you to be with her that you know her better than anybody else. My questi...
Unsung Heroes
Unsung Heroes Elizabeth Ross Haynes Excerpt In casting about for stories to read to a little friend, one day I drew from the Library "My Life and Times" by Frederick Douglass. I knew that t...
Death in the City
Death in the City Keith Kareem Williams Excerpt “Where I’m from, if you get shot you don’t tell. If you survive the bullets, you find the shooter yourself and get your revenge. ...
Wolf Hustle
Wolf Hustle Cin Fabré Excerpt Introduction The hustle has always been with me. Once I discovered the stock market I became infected with the delirious joy that comes from a successful speculative ...
Notes of Artistic Freedom Fighter
Notes of Artistic Freedom Fighter Marvin X Excerpt INTRODUCTION By Dr. Nathan Hare With the return of “white nationalism” to the international stage and the White House and new th...
Excerpt: Afrocentric Style
Excerpt: Afrocentric Style Shirley Neal Excerpt From the “Hair” Chapter From the “Fashion” Chapter
Cane
Cane Jean Toomer Excerpt Introduction to Cane As it appeared in the Perennial Classic edition copyright 1969 by Arna Bontemps LOOKING back on the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920’s,...
In My ‘Hood
In My ‘Hood Endy Excerpt The loud banging on the door startled Desiree “Rae-Rae” Johnson from her deep sleep. She sat up on the mattress that graced the dirty hardwood floor. Wiping th...
The Messenger Reader
The Messenger Reader Sondra Kathryn Wilson Excerpt In this short story, Fenton Johnson introduces the reader to Elizabeth (Eliza) Jan, an African-American servant. Liza, a Southerner, finds herself w...
Like Sweet Buttermilk
Like Sweet Buttermilk S.F. Powell Excerpt …Viv entered their sitting room, where she lay down to think, pulling the afghan strewn across the loveseat around her. More thinking, however, didn...
Grandpa! Tell Us a Story Drinking from Ancient Wells the Story of the Game Black People Play/Trilogy Book One: The Game’s Soul
Grandpa! Tell Us a Story Drinking from Ancient Wells the Story of the Game Black People Play/Trilogy Book One: The Game’s Soul Orchester Benjamin Excerpt If you dig deep en...
Morning Drive to Midnight
Morning Drive to Midnight Renee Prewitt Killingsworth Excerpt After working together awhile, Adrienne and Selena developed a bond that transcended simple friendship. Adrienne used to say they clicke...
A Letter for My Mother
A Letter for My Mother Nina Foxx Excerpt Nina Foxx’s Letter: A Letter to My Once Mother-in-Law Charlenne, The doctors say that it won’t be long now. Your son just called and told m...
Not All Dogs
Not All Dogs C. Kelly Robinson Excerpt Prologue Chapter One: Choirboy Chapter Two: Smooth Operator Chapter Three: Sinister Minister Chapter Four: Bootstrapper Prologue (top) Sheryl Gibs...
Love Don’t Come Easy
Love Don’t Come Easy J.T. Smith Excerpt After finishing my job with Lance, I hurried back home and washed up. Looking at the alarm clock on my nightstand, I saw that it was a little after three. I hu...
Gone Fishin’
Gone Fishin’ Walter Mosley Excerpt Gone Fishin' CHAPTER ONE Mouse had changed. Before he announced his engagement to EttaMae he was a happy man, full of himself. It's true that he...
A Promised Land (Deluxe Signed Edition)
A Promised Land (Deluxe Signed Edition) Barack Obama Excerpt Preface I began writing this book shortly after the end of my presidency—after Michelle and I had boarded Air Force One for the l...
A Promised Land
A Promised Land Barack Obama Excerpt Preface I began writing this book shortly after the end of my presidency—after Michelle and I had boarded Air Force One for the last time and traveled we...
Author: The Portraits of Beowulf Sheehan
Author: The Portraits of Beowulf Sheehan Beowulf Sheehan Excerpt Photographing Gregory Pardlo, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, at his home was an exercise in seeing love in the tactile. ...
Food and the City
Food and the City Ina Yalof Excerpt Alexander SmallsThe Cecil Daylight floods his Harlem apartment, an eclectic space crammed with old and new mementos from a well-traveled, well-lived life. The...
My Brown Baby
My Brown Baby Denene Millner Excerpt Chapter 1 My Escort into Motherhood I WAS A YOUNG REPORTER WHEN I MET HER—full of energy, I had a flat stomach, still 120 pounds soaking wet, still ea...
The Immortality Of Influence
The Immortality Of Influence Salome Thomas-El Excerpt Foreword by Will Smith If you finish this book and are not inspired to immediately go out and effect change in your community, then you w...
Space Funk
Space Funk Milton J. Davis Excerpt The Right Stuff ByLynette S. Hoag Senator Lyndon took a seat behind the enormous mahogany desk. The desk wasn’t his. It belonged to the Head Administrat...
Chapters <a href="#1">1</a> & <a href="#12">12</a>: The Fund by Kevin P. Chavous
Chapters 1 & 12: The Fund by Kevin P. Chavous Kevin P. Chavous Excerpt Chapter 1 𝒥ackson Lowery was in trouble. The man was coming at him again. Jackson was much taller, but the shorter man w...
Chapters <a href="#1">1</a> & <a href="#12">12</a>: The Fund by Kevin P. Chavous
Chapters 1 & 12: The Fund by Kevin P. Chavous Kevin P. Chavous Excerpt Chapter 1 𝒥ackson Lowery was in trouble. The man was coming at him again. Jackson was much taller, but the shorter man w...
A Thug’s Redemption
A Thug’s Redemption Yani Excerpt Shawn, Jamal and Maurice headed over to Erie Avenue to check out a basketball game in a nearby playground. Shawn was scoping out the competition to see who he would ...
Obscure Boundaries
Obscure Boundaries S.F. Powell Excerpt …“You know he’ll be out by the time she gets home.” Todd dropped his head for a minute then looked up. “Wanna watch Medea&rsquo...
You Only Get Better: Celebrating Life Every Step of the Way
You Only Get Better: Celebrating Life Every Step of the Way Connie Briscoe, Lolita Files, and Anita Bunkley Excerpt The brass headboard thumped against the wall as he rolled off of her and onto his b...
You Only Get Better: Celebrating Life Every Step of the Way
You Only Get Better: Celebrating Life Every Step of the Way Connie Briscoe, Lolita Files, and Anita Bunkley Excerpt The brass headboard thumped against the wall as he rolled off of her and onto his b...
Dead Emcee Scrolls: The Lost Teachings of Hip-Hop
Dead Emcee Scrolls: The Lost Teachings of Hip-Hop Saul Williams Excerpt A CONFESSION There is no music more powerful than hip-hop. No other music so purely demands an instant affirmative on such ...
Mass Deception
Mass Deception Hallema Excerpt Chill bumps appear out of nowhere when I think about that particular period of my life. The memory still haunts me to this day. I’d just arrived bac...
Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle
Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle Chris Hedges Excerpt Now the death of God combined with the perfection of the image has brought us to a whole new state of expe...
A Life of Turmoil: The short stories of Ana Franken 08150017
A Life of Turmoil: The short stories of Ana Franken 08150017 Johanna Sparrow Excerpt Yes, Mother The turmoiled relationship of Ana Franken a Short Story “Sometimes I wish that I had all boys...
The Truth About Men: The Secret Side Of The Opposite Sex
The Truth About Men: The Secret Side Of The Opposite Sex Ian Smith Excerpt THE FIRST PRINCIPLETHE SUBTLE ART OF HOOKING US There’s a big misperception that men never want to be in commit...
You Are Free: Stories
You Are Free: Stories Danzy Senna Excerpt What’s the Matter with Helga and Dave? When I married Hewitt, I didn’t realize — among other things — that I would become a member...
Fifteen Years Delayed
Fifteen Years Delayed Angelia Vernon Menchan Excerpt Prologue Damn… there she is after fifteen years, still, even button-upped, a living breathing wet dream in the flesh. Feeling breath o...
In West Mills
In West Mills De’Shawn Charles Winslow Excerpt Part One In October of ’41, Azalea Centre’s man told her that he was sick and tired of West Mills and of the love affair she was having w...
The Man Who Cried I Am
The Man Who Cried I Am John A. Williams Excerpt FOREWORD by Graham Hodges The publication of John A. Williams’ fourth novel, The Man Who Cried I Am, in October, 1967, caused cr...
Egyptian Gods Oracle Cards Guidebook
Egyptian Gods Oracle Cards Guidebook Silvana Alasia Excerpt Unable to Render Document Inline Your current device or browser co...
A Thug’s Redemption 2: Jamal’s Return
A Thug’s Redemption 2: Jamal’s Return Yani Excerpt They jumped on the elevator and rode down to the garage. Neither Maurice nor Angela knew what to say to Keisha so they followed in silence. They ma...
To Find You
To Find You Cerece Rennie Murphy Excerpt Part I: In The Beginning I wait for him here, at the place where the night sky and the earth become lovers. In the tall grass of our homeland, between two k...
Harmattan Rain
Harmattan Rain Ayesha Harruna Attah Excerpt Ernest sat in the driver’s seat of the Pontiac tapping his fingers on the steering wheel. Lizzie packed Akua Afriyie, Naa Tsoo, Kwame and Ernest ...
Sometimes I Cry
Sometimes I Cry Linda Dominique Grosvenor Excerpt I have never been more anxious in my entire life than I am right now. I’m sitting at my desk with an hour or more to kill and a list of things...
Cowards and Angels
Cowards and Angels Aileen Muhammad Excerpt Mia (From Cowards and Angels) Death before dishonor. An embrace like no other. A fair exchange. An honored declaration that life’s sagging hypocr...
In the Still of the Night: Personal Safety for Women
In the Still of the Night: Personal Safety for Women Andrea Foy Excerpt Une Nuit de Paris\ “How did I get myself into this mess?” I thought. There I was, riding on the Metro out of Par...
The Husband We Share
The Husband We Share London St. Charles Excerpt Chapter One Lauren Carter screamed and bolted upright in her bed, snatched from the reoccurring nightmare that had plagued her for years. She touched ...
Show Me No Mercy
Show Me No Mercy Anita L. Roseboro Excerpt Casey ran from the bedroom and rushed out the door without anything more than a comforter wrapped around her body to ward off the freezing temperatures. She...
Chapters 1 and 2
Chapters 1 and 2 Harlow Giles Unger Excerpt Chapters 1 and 2 Chapter 1College Is Not for Everyone So your kid says he or she wants to go to college. “All my friends are going!&rdq...
Done in the Dark
Done in the Dark Tamara Morgan Excerpt Though she knew she should take comfort that Mama Ella was going to ‘a better place,’ despite her grandmother’s efforts Karina’s faith i...
Done in the Dark
Done in the Dark Tamara Morgan Excerpt Chapter 1 Though she knew she should take comfort that Mama Ella was going to ‘a better place,’ despite her grandmother’s efforts Karina&rsqu...
An Approach to Style: The 21 Reminders
An Approach to Style: The 21 Reminders William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White Excerpt In the final chapter of The Elements of Style, E. B. White provides a list of guidelines to help writers develop a di...
Preface
Preface Kekla Magoon Excerpt Preface: When people talk about the Black Panthers, sometimes they speak in hushed tones, as if history itself could overhear. As if the Panthers are a secret no one s...
Jelani’s Key Chapter II
Jelani’s Key Chapter II D. Amari Jackson Excerpt Chapter II The Bully of Benning Road
A Voice from the South
A Voice from the South Excerpt In the clash and clatter of our American Conflict, it has been said that the South remains silent. Like the Sphinx, she inspires vociferous disputation, but hersel...
Adultery
Adultery Paulo Coelho Excerpt Every morning, when I open my eyes to the so-Âcalled “new day,” I feel like closing them again, staying in bed, and not getting up. But I can’t do t...
Obsessive Intimacies
Obsessive Intimacies Yani Excerpt This nigga must’ve either lost his fucking mind or he thinks I’m still the same dumb and naïve Tierra from high-school and college. I know muthafucking ...
Zone One: A Novel
Zone One: A Novel Colson Whitehead Excerpt A 2012 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award Nominated Book He always wanted to live in New York. His Uncle Lloyd lived downtown on Lafayette, and in the long s...
Shedding Light From My Journeys
Shedding Light From My Journeys DuEwa M. Frazier Excerpt R Ju Iz Spanish Mami, mami, ju look so good, are ju married ? I think in a past life I was Spanish cause the pa...
Black Man’s Version to Exhale
Black Man’s Version to Exhale Akie F. Davis Excerpt Introduction We know all too well of the frustrating encounters that many Black women have had when dealing with Black men. However, little h...
Embracing the Horror
Embracing the Horror Darline Dorce-Coupet Excerpt San Juan although very beautiful was a blur, as I contemplated the mysteries of the powerful desire I was experiencing. So completely absorbed by m...
Black Wings & Blind Angels: Poems
Black Wings & Blind Angels: Poems Professor Griff Excerpt Breaking Karma #5 i It is like a scene in a play. His bald spot shines upward between dark tufts of hair. We are sitting in a pool of...
In My Family’s Shadow: Sister of Sports Phenomenon Michael Jordan
In My Family’s Shadow: Sister of Sports Phenomenon Michael Jordan Deloris E. Jordan Excerpt Ending eight years after it first began and five years after losing my virginity to my father, it scares me...
Prince and Me: His #1 Fan: My Minneapolis Memories
Prince and Me: His #1 Fan: My Minneapolis Memories Andrea Foy Excerpt NEW YEAR’S EVE, PART 1 I spent New Year’s Eve 1992 in Minneapolis with friends I met from the Controversy Fan Clu...
Chasing Ava
Chasing Ava Siera London Excerpt Ava had been distracted for days, Logan noticed. When he’d questioned her, she denied that there was a problem. But she seemed more fragile and solitary. Even w...
No Man’s Compass
No Man’s Compass S. D. Hines Excerpt Michael Healy carried a sidearm, a .45 colt revolver. As the two men ran towards the boy, Michael gasped to his brother, "Get the boy…to safety…I...
The First
The First Kipjo K. Ewers Excerpt CHAPTER 1 Monday 11:30 PM, Mountain View Unit in Gatesville, Texas, prisoner 28301:014 stared at her prison door as if she was watching a movie. She barely touched h...