KRLemmons African American adult literature, African American Authors, African American autobiography, African American Essays, African American Nonfiction

365 Black Books Kiese Laymon Saturday

Happy birthday Kiese Laymon! Born August 15, Kiese Laymon is an African American southern writer from Jackson, Mississippi. Laymon is the Libbie Shearn Moody Professor of English and Creative Writing at Rice University. Laymon is the author of Long Division, which won the 2022 NAACP Image Award for fiction, and the essay collection, How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America, named a notable book of 2021 by the New York Times critics. Laymon’s bestselling memoir, Heavy: An American Memoir, won the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction, the Christopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiographical Prose, the Barnes and Noble Discovery Award, the Austen Riggs Erikson Prize for Excellence in Mental Health Media, and was named one of the 50 Best Memoirs of the Past 50 Years by The New York Times.

KRLemmons African American adult fiction, African American adult literature, African American Authors

365 Black Books Diane McKinney-Whetstone Friday

Happy birthday Diane McKinney-Whetstone! Born August 14, Diane McKinney-Whetstone is an African American author of eight novels. Her latest novel, Family spirit was published August, 2025. She mines the city of Philadelphia for her material. The blocks and neighborhoods themselves become characters as she tells stories of everyday people existing in families and communities; characters faltering, yielding to their desires, falling, fighting, climbing, reaching for their better selves. Twice awarded the American Library Association Black Caucus Literary Award for Fiction, she is also a recipient of a Pennsylvania Council on the Arts grant.

KRLemmons African American adult literature, African American Authors, African American Essays, African American Nonfiction, African American Poetry, African American Poets

365 Black Books James Baldwin Sunday

Heavenly happy birthday James Baldwin! Born August 2, 1924, James Arthur Baldwin was an African American writer and civil rights activist who garnered acclaim for his essays, novels, plays, and poems. His 1953 novel Go Tell It on the Mountain has been ranked by Time magazine as one of the top 100 English-language novels. He died in 1987. His authored other notable works:

Read some of his poetry here:

KRLemmons African American academic work, African American Authors, African American Literature, African American Nonfiction, African American Plays, African American Playwrights, African American Poetry, African American Poets

365 Black Books Thulani Davis Wednesday

Belated happy birthday Thulani Davis! Born July 19, is an African American playwright, journalist, librettist, novelist, poet, and screenwriter. She is a graduate of Barnard College and attended graduate school at both the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University. Here are some of her notable works:

KRLemmons African American adult literature, African American Authors, African American Short Stories

365 Black Books Charles W. Chestnutt Sunday

Heavenly belated birthday wishes Charles W. Chestnutt! Born June 20, 1858, Charles Waddell Chesnutt was an African-American author, essayist, political activist, and lawyer, best known for his novels and short stories exploring complex issues of racial and social identity in the post-Civil War South. He died in 1932. Here are just a few of his notable works:

KRLemmons African American adult fiction, African American Authors, African American Science Fiction Literature

365 Black Books Sutton E. Griggs Saturday

Heavenly belated birthday wishes Sutton E. Griggs! Born June 19, 1872, Sutton Elbert Griggs was an American author, Baptist minister, academic administrator, educator, publisher, and social activist. He is best known for his novel Imperium in Imperio, a utopian work that envisions a separate African-American state within the United States. He passed away in 1933. Some of his notable works: