Historical Fiction by Black or Indigenous Authors

Participating in Books & Bites Bingo? Here are some suggestions for the prompt, historical fiction by a Black or Indigenous author.

Updated August 19, 2024
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Can't we be friends : a novel of Ella Fitzgerald and Marilyn Monroe
Bryce, Denny S.
Paper Book
Award-winning author Denny S. Bryce and USA Today bestselling author Eliza Knight collaborate on a brilliant novel that uncovers the boundary-breaking, genuine friendship between Ella Fitzgerald, the Queen of Jazz, and iconic movie star Marilyn Monroe.  One woman was recognized as the...
The mayor of Maxwell Street
Cunningham, Avery
Paper Book
'The year is 1921, and America is burning. A fire of vice and virtue rages on every shore with Chicago at its beating heart.' Twenty-year-old Nelly Sawyer is the daughter of the alleged 'wealthiest Negro in America,' whose wealth catapulted his family to the heights of Black society. After the...
Into the bright open : a Secret garden remix
Dimaline, Cherie
Paper Book
In the Remixed Classics series, authors from marginalized backgrounds reinterpret classic works through their own cultural lens to subvert the overwhelming cishet, white, and male canon. This queer YA reimagining of The Secret Garden subverts the cishet and white status quo of the...
The night watchman : a novel
Erdrich, Louise
Paper Book
WINNER OF THE 2021 PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER WASHINGTON POST, NPR, CBS SUNDAY MORNING, KIRKUS, CHICAGO PUBLIC LIBRARY, AND GOOD HOUSEKEEPING BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR Based on the extraordinary life of National Book Award-winning author Louise Erdrich's...
James : a novel
Everett, Percival
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER * A brilliant, action-packed reimagining of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, both harrowing and darkly humorous, told from the enslaved Jim's point of view NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST * ONE OF...
Coleman Hill : a novel
Foote, Kim Coleman
Paper Book
Longlisted for the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction * Longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize * Shortlisted for the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Debut Author A Washington Post Noteworthy Book for September * A Good Morning America...
Life and other love songs
Gray, Anissa
Paper Book
"Musical in structure--the octaves rise when the music calls for it; truths are revealed by the invisible beats of this gorgeous, rich story" -Ann Napolitano, New York Times bestselling author of Hello Beautiful (Oprah's Book Club Pick) "Riveting, rhythmic, transcendent...
The house of Eve : a novel
Johnson, Sadeqa
Paper Book
"Amazing...I was completely surprised by the ending of this beautifully told and written book." --Reese Witherspoon "A triumph of historical fiction" (The Washington Post), an instant New York Times bestseller, and a Reese's Book Club pick, set in 1950s...
Flipping boxcars : a novel
Kyles, Cedric
Paper Book
The first novel from one of the original Kings of Comedy, Cedric "The Entertainer," an engaging and entertaining crime caper that is a valentine to close-knit black families and tightly woven communities struggling to get by during the Depression and World War II. Babe is a charismatic and...
All we were promised : a novel
Lattimore, Ashton
Paper Book
A housemaid with a dangerous family secret conspires with a wealthy young abolitionist to help an enslaved girl escape, in volatile pre-Civil War Philadelphia--"a gripping novel about standing up to impossible odds" (People, Best New Books) The rebel . . . the...
Lone women
LaValle, Victor D.
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER . Blue skies, empty land-and enough wide-open space to hide a horrifying secret. A woman with a past, a mysterious trunk, a town on the edge of nowhere, andan "absorbing, powerful" (BuzzFeed)new vision of the American West, from the award-winning author of The...
Unsettled : A Novel
Mathis, Ayana
Paper Book
From the bestselling author of The Twelve Tribes of Hattie, a searing multigenerational novel--set in the 1980s in racially and politically turbulent Philadelphia and the tiny town of Bonaparte, Alabama--about a mother fighting for her sanity and survival From the moment Ava Carson...
The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store
McBride, James
Paper Book
THE RUNAWAY NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK * A NEW YORK TIMES READERS PICK: 100 BEST BOOKS OF THE 21ST CENTURY WINNER OF THE 2024 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS PRIZE FOR AMERICAN FICTION FROM ONE OF TIME MAGAZINE'S...
Wandering Stars : A Novel
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * The Pulitzer Prize-finalist and author of the breakout bestseller There There ("Pure soaring beauty."The New York Times Book Review) delivers a masterful follow-up to his already classic first novel. Extending his constellation of narratives into...
Ella : a novel
Richards, Diane
Paper Book
In the vein of The Paris Wife and The Personal Librarian comes this debut novel, a magnificent work of "biographical fiction" that reimagines the turbulent and triumphant early years of Ella Fitzgerald, arguably the greatest singer of the twentieth century. When fifteen-year-old Ella...
The queen of Sugar Hill : a novel of Hattie McDaniel
Tate, ReShonda
Paper Book
As seen on The TODAY Show! Bestselling author ReShonda Tate presents a fascinating fictional portrait of Hattie McDaniel, one of Hollywood's most prolific but woefully underappreciated stars--and the first Black person ever to win an Oscar for her role as Mammy in the critically acclaimed...
Pemmican wars
Vermette, Katherena
Paper Book
Echo Desjardins, a 13-year-old Métis girl adjusting to a new home and school, is struggling with loneliness while separated from her mother. Then an ordinary day in Mr. Bee's history class turns extraordinary, and Echo's life will never be the same. During Mr. Bee's lecture, Echo finds herself...
Let us descend : a novel
Ward, Jesmyn
Paper Book
OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK * Instant New York Times Bestseller * Named one of the best books of 2023 by The Washington Post, Vanity Fair, The Boston Globe, Time, The New Yorker, and more. "Nothing short of epic,...

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