BOOKS


An account of immigrant experience, Penguin Press is releasing this edition of “one of the true great Black British novels” as a Clothbound Classic.


Ntozake Shange For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/ When the Rainbow Is Enuf W&N, 9th December, £8.99, 9781474621984 Consisting of poetic monologues and stage directions, For Colored Girls... gives voice to what it was to be a woman of colour in the 20th century. It will be one of the launch titles for a new list of modern classics: W&N Essentials.


Kelso Simon A Monster’s Tale SRL Publishing, 27th July, £8.99, 9781838279813 This gritty crime novel follows 32-year-old Brett, whose life is an endless cycle of work and stress. A series of events involv- ing his ex-girlfriend and their four-year-old daughter leads to a life-changing disaster which thrusts Brett into a cycle of insanity and revenge.


Forthcoming titles Black Authors’ Preview


Naima Simone The Road to Rose Bend Mills & Boon, 24th June, £8.99, 9781848458512 The latest title from Naima Simone is a heartwarming story of second chances, but with emotional pulls of family feuds, loss and grief. A key title for Mills & Boon, The Road to Rose Bend will be supported by a strong marketing campaign.


bodies, gender identity and motherhood.


is on a mission to get us to face the “enemy of progress” known as fear. Guided by the influence of her “professional troublemaking” Nigerian grandmother, Ajayi Jones explores what we need to overcome to succeed.


Rivers Solomon Sorrowland #Merky Books, 6th May, £14.99, 9781529118735 Sorrowland follows an albino, intersex Black child raised in a cult who flees to the woods as a seven-months-pregnant 15-year-old. The book explores life on the margins and examines themes including the state’s damning experi- mentations on Black


Dawnie Walton The Final Revival of Opal & Nev Quercus, 20th April, £14.99, 9781529414493 Reminiscent of Daisy Jones and the Six, this is a polyphonic novel that tells the story of a Black female singer and a white British singer/ songwriter. Featuring a wealth of voices, blending journalism and fiction, it details the emergence of Afropunk culture while exploring themes of racism and exploitation in the 1970s music scene and the music industry today.


Editor’s Choice


Alex Wheatle Cane Warriors Andersen Press, out now, £10.99, 9781783449873 The first historical YA novel from the Brixton Bard, Cane Warriors follows the true-life slave rebellion known as Tacky’s War in 18th-century Jamaica through the eyes of 14-year-old Moa.


Otegha Uwagba


We Need to Talk About Money 4th Estate, 8th July, £14.99, 9780008350383


On a mission to demystify what remains as a dirty little secret for many, Uwagba builds on her excellent and practical career guide Little Black Book, and explores her own relationship with money and what that relationship says about the world around us. Personal but universal, Uwagba’s story of navigating university and the world of work while dealing with the pressures of class, lack of privilege and misogyny, is illuminating, eye-opening and reassuring.


Charmaine Wilkerson Black Cake Michael Joseph, Feb 2022, £14.99, 9780241529928 An immersive début, Black Cake is a story of love and loss that follows an estranged brother and sister as they try to remember the importance of family and each other.


Non-fiction


Christian Adofo A Quick Ting On Jacaranda, 26th Aug, £9.99, 9781913090517 The brainchild of Jacaranda publisher Magdalena Abrama, the latest title in press’ lead non-fiction series A Quick Ting On is Adofo’s look at the infectious and pioneer- ing Afrobeats music genre.


Luvvie Ajayi Jones The Fear-Fighter Manual: Lessons from a Professional Troublemaker Quercus, out now, £14.99, 9781529409017 Popular podcast host and writer Ajayi Jones


48 9th April 2021


Ayishat Akanbi The Awokening: Clarity, Culture and Identity in the Web of Chaos Orion, 11th Nov, £16.99, 9781474614948 Looking at how the concept of spiritual awak- ening has evolved into present-day “wokeness”, and how that has in turn led to further polarisation rather than unification, stylist and DJ Akanbi uses The Wokening to encour- age an appeal to human- ism and self-awareness.


Black guide readers through aspects of their lives including love, career and social impact, with personalised prompts, meditations and tarot spreads.


Incisive “Channel 4 News” reporter Symeon Brown is taking stock of influencer culture in his first book. Including stories from across the world, from London, to Lagos, to LA, Get Rich or Lie Trying is an exposé of the murky world of the influencer, from YouTube pranksters to pornographers on OnlyFans.


Jay Blades Making It: How Love, Kindness and Community Helped Me Repair My Life Pan Mac, 13th May, £16.99. 9781529059199 The breakout star of lock- down via his presenting role on BBC One’s “The Repair Shop”, Jay Blades is sharing details of his life—from his childhood growing up in Hackney, to being brutalised by police as a teen, to finding his true vocation in restora- tion—in his new memoir.


Dame Elizabeth Anionwu Dreams from My Mother Orion, 16th Sep, £7.99, 9781841885223 This originally self- published memoir from Dame Anionwu, who was named a BBC 100 Women of the Year in 2020, tells the inspirational life story of a woman who over- came stigma and discrimi- nation to become the first ever sickle-cell specialist nurse in the UK.


Bibi Bakare-Yusuf Outriders Africa Cassava Republic, 10th Aug, £12.32, 9781913175238 With a mission to decolonise travel writing, this travelogue sees two writers travelling in and through the same African country and document- ing their experiences. Featuring contributions from Tsitsi Dangarembga, Sabrina Mahfouz and Kei Miller, among others, Outriders Africa is a direct rejection of the “damag- ing legacy” that 400 years of white European journeying authors has brought to the genre.


Leona Nichole Black Tarot Therapy Orion, 12th May, £12.99, 9781398704156 Tarot Therapy sees established tarot therapist


Jeffrey Boakye I Heard What You Said Picador, June 2022, £16.99, 9781529063745 A creative visionary who has covered topics from masculinity to Grime music and Black British culture, Boakye’s latest leverages his unique position as a Black teacher in the UK’s white education system and offers a call-to-action to stop that system from continuing to fail both its teachers and students.


Gemma Cairney The Immortal Sisterhood: How Remarkable Women Taught Me How to Live Canongate , June 2022, £12.99, 9781838851293 Radio 1 presenter Cairney blends memoir and self- help in her book about how we can look to other women—Poly Styrene, Maya Angelou, Audre Lorde, among others—to help overcome life’s obstacles.


Natalie Carter & Melissa Cummings-Quarry Grown: The Black Girls’ Guide to Glowing Up Bloomsbury, 30th Sep, £12.99, 9781526623713 Written by the co-found- ers of the space-carving, agenda-setting literature and events platform Black Girls Book Club, Grown is a guide to navigating life as a Black teenage girl— the perfect handbook for advice about laying the perfect edges, dealing with microaggressions, and more.


Candice Brathwaite Sista Sister Quercus, 8th July, £16.99, 9781529415276 Brathwaite’s second title is a compilation of essays about things she wishes someone had talked to her about when she was a young Black girl growing up in London: from family and money, to Black hair, fashion and colourism.


Symeon Brown Get Rich or Lie Trying: Ambition and Deceit in the New Influencer Economy Atlantic, April 2022, £16.99, 9781838950279


Eric Collins We Don’t Need Permission Bantam Press, April 2022, £20, 9781787635395 A system in which 93 per cent of all venture capital goes to white, male teams is a broken system. This is the sobering statistic at the heart of entrepreneur Eric Collins’ practical guide to successful, trans- formative entrepreneur- ship for groups that have been excluded from the venture capital space.


St Clair Detrick-Jules My Beautiful Black Hair Chronicle Books, 14th Sep, £18.09, 9781797212197 In this book from film- maker and photographer Detrick-Jules, 101 Black women share their stories of learning to love their natural hair. Includes powerful interviews and vivid photographs.


Christopher Emdin Ratchetdemic


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