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There have been a plethora of distinguished books throughout 2020 (view this year\u2019s reading list <\/b>here<\/b><\/a>), allowing us to escape to different worlds as we grapple with a pandemic and multiple other crises. Now, we\u2019re looking forward to unearthing even more gems in the forthcoming year, especially as multiple writers of color release their debut works. New voices are among us, fresh perspectives, and engaging stories.<\/b><\/p>\n We\u2019ll be introduced to Black female authors such as Dantiel W. Moniz, whose novel <\/b>Milk Blood Heat <\/i><\/b>is an enthralling collection of tales about race, womanhood, and human connection. And then there\u2019s Nathan Harris, debut author of <\/b>The Sweetness of Water<\/i><\/b>, a post-civil war historical fiction novel on love and loss.<\/b><\/p>\n In this curated list, more seasoned authors and well-known public figures also have anticipated works that will be released in the coming year. There\u2019s <\/b>Caul Baby <\/i><\/b>by Morgan Jerkins, and <\/b>While Justice Sleeps<\/i><\/b> by politician (and <\/b>romance novelist<\/b><\/a>) Stacey Abrams, as well as a memoir from the beloved actress Cicely Tyson.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n Read on to explore our most awaited works of fiction and non-fiction in the first half of 2021, with more to be added as we learn about new releases in the second half of the year.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n Nadia Owusu\u2019s affecting memoir <\/b>Aftershocks<\/i><\/b> traces her nomadic childhood, from Europe to Africa and back. She reflects on losing her father, the hero of her life, at thirteen, and having an unreliable mother who drifted in and out. It\u2019s a touching memoir about how she found her own identity as she arrived in New York with an uncertain future ahead of her.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n \u201cAftershocks <\/i><\/b>is the way she hauled herself from the wreckage of her life\u2019s perpetual quaking, the means by which she has finally come to understand that the only ground firm enough to count on is the one written into existence by her own hand.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n The Pulitzer Prize-winning musical <\/b>A Strange Loop <\/i><\/b>by Michael R. Jackson will be available as a book in early 2021. Described as a \u201cmetaphysical musical,\u201d A Strange Loop tackles the creative process of a Black queer writer, who is writing an original musical on that very topic. Thus, enter Usher\u2019s \u201cstrange loop\u201d as he attempts to process his own inner demons, fears, and insecurities. Watch the trailer for the musical <\/b>here<\/b><\/a>.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n In this 608 page memoir,\u00a0 Cicely Tyson reveals her truest self\u2013\u2013an in-depth meditation on her nine decades of life and how her career and personal life have shaped her into the extraordinary, wise woman that she is today.<\/b><\/p>\n “<\/i><\/b>Just As I Am<\/b> is my truth. It is me, plain and unvarnished, with the glitter and garland set aside. In these pages, I am indeed Cicely, the actress who has been blessed to grace the stage and screen for six decades. Yet I am also the church girl who once rarely spoke a word. I am the teenager who sought solace in the verses of the old hymn for which this book is named. I am a daughter and mother, a sister, and a friend. I am an observer of human nature and the dreamer of audacious dreams. I am a woman who has hurt as immeasurably as I have loved, a child of God divinely guided by His hand. And here in my ninth decade, I am a woman who, at long last, has something meaningful to say.\u201d \u2013<\/i><\/b>Cicely Tyson<\/b><\/p>\n Bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize nominee Ben Montgomery brings us <\/b>A Shot in the Moonligh<\/i><\/b>t, the true and rare story of freed slave George Dinning, who joined forces with a Confederate war hero-turned-lawyer to seek justice in the Jim Crow south. Montgomery pulls from a copious amount of unpublished material to tell this startling but largely forgotten story.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n \u201cAfter moonrise on the cold night of January 21, 1897, a mob of twenty-five white men gathered in a patch of woods near Big Road in southwestern Simpson County, Kentucky. Half carried rifles and shotguns, and a few tucked pistols in their pants. Their target was George Dinning, a freed slave who’d farmed peacefully in the area for 14 years, and who had been wrongfully accused of stealing livestock from a neighboring farm. When the mob began firing through the doors and windows of Dinning’s home, he fired back in self-defense, shooting and killing the son of a wealthy Kentucky family.<\/b><\/p>\n So began one of the strangest legal episodes in American history \u2014 one that ended with Dinning becoming the first Black man in America to win damages after a wrongful murder conviction.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n Gael Richardson\u2019s dystopian debut novel <\/b>Gutter Child<\/i><\/b> is set in a world that is divided into the privileged Mainland and the policed Gutter. The protagonist, Elimina Dubois, is one of 100 babies taken from the Gutter and raised in the land of the privileged as part of a social experiment.\u00a0\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n \u201cBut when her Mainland mother dies, Elimina finds herself all alone, a teenager forced into an unfamiliar life of servitude, unsure of who she is and where she belongs. Elimina is sent to an academy with new rules and expectations where she befriends Gutter children who are making their own way through the Gutter System in whatever ways they know how. When Elimina\u2019s life takes another unexpected turn, she will discover that what she needs more than anything may not be the freedom she longs for after all.<\/b><\/p>\n Richardson\u2019s <\/b>Gutter Child<\/i><\/b> reveals one young woman\u2019s journey through a fractured world of heartbreaking disadvantages and shocking injustices. Elimina is a modern heroine in an altered but all too recognizable reality who must find the strength within herself to forge her future and defy a system that tries to shape her destiny.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n Described as a contemporary <\/b>Oliver Twist<\/i><\/b>, Keisha Bush\u2019s <\/b>No Heaven for Good Boys<\/i><\/b> is set in rural and urban Senegal, pulling from real events. It\u2019s a robust tale of love, hope, and resilience.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n \u201cSix-year-old Ibrahimah loves snatching pastries from his mother\u2019s kitchen, harvesting string beans with his father, and searching for sea glass with his sisters. But when he is approached in his rural village one day by Marabout Ahmed, a seemingly kind stranger and highly regarded teacher, the tides of his life turn forever. Ibrahimah is sent to the capital city of Dakar to join his cousin \u00c9tienne in studying the Koran under Marabout Ahmed for a year, but instead of the days of learning that Ibrahimah\u2019s parents imagine, the young boys, called Talib\u00e9, are forced to beg in the streets in order to line their teacher\u2019s pockets.<\/b><\/p>\n To make it back home, \u00c9tienne and Ibrahimah must help each other survive both the dangers posed by their Marabout, and the darker sides of Dakar: threats of black-market organ traders, rival packs of Talib\u00e9, and mounting student protest on the streets.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n In her debut work of fiction, Dantiel W. Moniz\u2019s <\/b>Milk Blood Heat <\/i><\/b>paints a dynamic picture of the lives of Floridians in intergenerational stories about womanhood, human connection, race, and the primordial darkness that lingers within us all.<\/b><\/p>\n \u201cWise and subversive, spiritual and seductive, <\/b>Milk Blood Heat<\/i><\/b> forms an ouroboros of stories that bewitch with their truth, announcing the arrival of a bright new literary star.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House <\/i><\/b>is a tale that is set in Baxter\u2019s Beach, Barbados. As a young girl, Lala\u2019s grandmother would tell her a cautionary story about a one-armed sister, revealing what happens to girls who disobey their mothers and go into the Baxter\u2019s Tunnels.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n \u201cWhen she\u2019s grown, Lala lives on the beach with her husband, Adan, a petty criminal with endless charisma whose thwarted burglary of one of the beach mansions sets off a chain of events with terrible consequences. A gunshot no one was meant to witness. A new mother whose baby is found lifeless on the beach. A woman torn between two worlds and incapacitated by grief. And two men driven into the Tunnels by desperation and greed who attempt a crime that will risk their freedom \u2013 and their lives.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n Leesa Cross-Smith\u2019s upcoming novel <\/b>This Close to Okay <\/i><\/b>is a heartfelt story about how the fated meeting of therapist Tallie Clark and a tormented, suicidal man named Emmett alters the course of both their lives.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n \u201cAlternating between Tallie and Emmett’s perspectives as they inch closer to the truth of what brought Emmett to the bridge, <\/b>This Close to Okay <\/i><\/b>is an uplifting, powerful story of two strangers brought together by wild chance at the moment they need it the most.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n The Kindest Lie<\/i><\/b> by Nancy Johnson is a stunning exploration of motherhood in contemporary America, racial injustices, and the power of unexpected connections.<\/b><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/b>\u201cPowerful and revealing, <\/b>The Kindest Lie<\/i><\/b> captures the heartbreaking divide between Black and white communities and offers both an unflinching view of motherhood in contemporary America and the never-ending quest to achieve the American Dream.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n Naima Coster, author of the 2018 Kirkus Prize finalist <\/b>Halsey Street<\/i><\/b>, brings readers another novel that focuses on familial ties. <\/b>What\u2019s Mine and Yours<\/i><\/b> explores the ways in which race affects intimate relationships, centering on two seemingly disassociated families whose paths collide.<\/b><\/p>\n \u201cAs love is built and lost, and the past never too far behind,<\/b> What’s Mine and Yours <\/i><\/b>is an expansive, vibrant tapestry that moves between the years, from the foothills of North Carolina, to Atlanta, Los Angeles, and Paris. It explores the unique organism that is every family: what breaks them apart and how they come back together.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n From National Book Award-nominated novelist Andrea Lee,<\/b> Red Island House <\/i><\/b>is an enchanting book about love, identity, and freedom. Taking place on the enigmatic island of Madagascar, it follows the 20 years of marriage between an African American professor and her affluent Italian husband.<\/b><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/b>\u201cShay is surprised when her husband Senna declares his intention to build her a spectacular dream house on an idyllic beach in the tropical island nation of Madagascar.<\/b><\/p>\n But the Red Island House casts a spell from the moment she sees it, and before she knows it Shay has become the somewhat reluctant mistress of a sprawling household, caught between her privileged American upbringing and education, and her connection to the continent of her ancestors.<\/b><\/p>\n At first, she\u2019s content to be an observer of the passionate affairs and fierce ambitions and rivalries around her. But as she and her husband raise children and establish their own rituals on the island, Shay finds herself drawn ever deeper into an extraordinary place with its own laws and logic, a provocative paradise full of magic and myth whose fraught colonial legacy continues to reverberate. Soon the collision of cultures comes right to Shay\u2019s door, forcing her to make a life-altering decision.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n A gripping story about the meaning of freedom, <\/b>Libertie<\/i><\/b> by Kaitlyn Greenidge follows free-born Libertie Simpson and her life in Reconstruction-era Brooklyn. Her mother, a physician, yearned for Libertie to follow in her footsteps. But she\u2019s more drawn to music than science, and wishes to construct a different life for herself. It\u2019s a tale inspired by the life of one of the first Black female doctors in the United States, exuding historical details.\u00a0\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n \u201cPure brilliance. So much will be written about Kaitlyn Greenidge\u2019s <\/b>Libertie<\/i><\/b>\u2014how it blends history and magic into a new kind of telling, how it spins the past to draw deft circles around our present\u2014but none of it will measure up to the singular joy of reading this book.\u201d \u2014Mira Jacob, author of <\/b>Good Talk\u00a0\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n Denny Bryce\u2019s upcoming historical fiction novel <\/b>Wild Woman and the Blues <\/i><\/b>intertwines the stories of a grieving film student in 2015 and a determined chorus girl in 1925. What follows are tales of love and secrets among the musical landscape of Chicago.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n In her fiction debut, <\/b>New York Times<\/i><\/b> bestselling author Morgan Jerkins has crafted <\/b>Caul Baby<\/i><\/b>, a novel laced with magic, secrets, and betrayal.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n \u201cEngrossing, unique, and page-turning, <\/b>Caul Baby<\/i><\/b> illuminates the search for familial connection, the enduring power of tradition, and the dark corners of the human heart.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n The Final Revival of Opal & Nev<\/i><\/b> is Dawnie Walton\u2019s fictional story about Opal, a young independent woman who believes she can be a star. When she meets aspiring singer and songwriter Neville Charles, Opal accepts his promising offer to make music together. \u201cA kaleidoscopic fictional oral history of the beloved rock \u2019n\u2019 roll duo who shot to fame in 1970s New York, and the dark, fraught secret that lies at the peak of their stardom.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n Celebrated politician and romance novelist Stacey Abrams is venturing into a new genre that she certainly has first-hand experience in with <\/b>While Justice Sleeps<\/i><\/b>. The political thriller is layered with twists and turns, featuring electrifying characters.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n \u201c<\/b>Drawing on her astute inside knowledge of the court and political landscape, Stacey Abrams shows herself to be not only a force for good in politics and voter fairness but also a major new talent in suspense fiction.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n Zakiya Dalila Harris\u2019s debut <\/b>The Other Black Girl <\/i><\/b>is a compelling thriller about the tension and hostility that arises when twenty-six year old editorial assistant Nella Rogers is plotted against by Hazel, the only other Black woman in their inordinately white workplace.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n \u201c<\/b>A whip-smart and dynamic thriller and sly social commentary that is perfect for anyone who has ever felt manipulated, threatened, or overlooked in the workplace, <\/b>The Other Black Girl<\/i><\/b> will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very last twist.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n Monica West’s breathtaking debut explores the ways in which faith can be shaken and the reprehensible secrets that lie behind the doors of a Black Southern church and its community.\u00a0\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n \u201cCelebrating both feminism and faith, <\/b>Revival Season <\/i><\/b>is a story of spiritual awakening and disillusionment in a Southern, black, Evangelical community. Monica West\u2019s transporting coming-of-age novel explores complicated family and what it means to live among the community of the faithful.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n In his first novel <\/b>The Sweetness of Water,<\/i><\/b> Nathan Harris writes a profound story about the bond between two freedmen who are brothers, and a forbidden romance between two Confederate soldiers.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n \u201cWith candor and sympathy, debut novelist Nathan Harris creates an unforgettable cast of characters, depicting Georgia in the violent crucible of Reconstruction. Equal parts beauty and terror, as gripping as it is moving, <\/b>The Sweetness of Water<\/i><\/b> is an epic whose grandeur locates humanity and love amid the most harrowing circumstances.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There have been a plethora of distinguished books throughout 2020 (view this year\u2019s reading list here), allowing us to escape to different worlds as we grapple with a pandemic and multiple other crises. Now, we\u2019re looking forward to unearthing even more gems in the forthcoming year, especially as multiple writers of color release their debut […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":6045,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[174,1298],"tags":[1087,529,31,234,1086,51],"class_list":["post-5949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books-books","category-meditation","tag-2021-books","tag-black-authors","tag-featured","tag-jaro-books","tag-jaro-reading-list","tag-trending"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.watchjaro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.watchjaro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.watchjaro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.watchjaro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.watchjaro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.watchjaro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5949\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.watchjaro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.watchjaro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.watchjaro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.watchjaro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Aftershocks: A Memoir<\/em><\/b><\/a> by Nadia Owusu (<\/b>January 12th)<\/b><\/h2>\n
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A Strange Loop<\/b><\/a><\/em> by Michael R. Jackson (<\/b>January 19th)<\/b><\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\nJust as I Am: A Memoir<\/b><\/a><\/em> by Cicely Tyson (<\/b>January 26th)<\/b><\/h2>\n
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A Shot in the Moonlight<\/b><\/a><\/em> by Ben Montgomery (<\/b>January 26th)<\/b><\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/m.media-amazon.com\/images\/I\/51hyetvNtrL.jpg\" "\\"A")
<\/p>\nGutter Child<\/b><\/a><\/em> by Gael Richardson (January 26th)<\/b><\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\nNo Heaven for Good Boys<\/b><\/a><\/em> by Keisha Bush (<\/b>January 26th)<\/b><\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com\/images\/I\/51kT-fdUZUL._SX327_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/p>\nMilk Blood Heat<\/b><\/a><\/em> by Dantiel W. Moniz (<\/b>February 2nd)<\/b><\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com\/images\/I\/51US1TwuP+L._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/h1>\nHow the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House<\/b><\/a><\/em> by Cherie Jones (<\/b>February 2nd)<\/b><\/h2>\n
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<\/h1>\nThis Close to Okay<\/b><\/a><\/em> by Leesa Cross-Smith (<\/b>February 2nd)<\/b><\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\nThe Kindest Lie<\/b><\/a><\/em> by Nancy Johnson (<\/b>February 2nd)<\/b><\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\nWhat\u2019s Mine and Yours<\/em><\/b><\/a> by Naima Coster (<\/b>March 2nd)\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n
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Red Island House<\/b><\/a><\/em> by Andrea Lee (<\/b>March 23rd)\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n
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<\/h1>\nLibertie<\/b><\/a><\/em> by Kaitlyn Greenidge (<\/b>March 30th)<\/b><\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\nWild Women and the Blues<\/b><\/a><\/em> by Denny Bryce (<\/b>March 30th)<\/b><\/h2>\n
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<\/h1>\nCaul Baby<\/b><\/a><\/em> by Morgan Jerkins (<\/b>April 6th)<\/b><\/h2>\n
![\"Book](\"https:\/\/images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com\/images\/I\/518Cg+xJDCL._SX329_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg\" "\\"Book")
<\/p>\nThe Final Revival of Opal & Nev<\/b><\/a><\/em> by Dawnie Walton (<\/b>April 20th)<\/b><\/h2>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/m.media-amazon.com\/images\/I\/41HZ0rQaFvL.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/h1>\nWhile Justice Sleeps<\/b><\/a><\/em> by Stacey Abrams (<\/b>May 11th)\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com\/images\/I\/41l+Cy8tr4L._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/p>\nThe Other Black Girl <\/b><\/a><\/em>by Zakiya Dalila Harris (<\/b>June 1st)<\/b><\/h2>\n
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Revival Season<\/b><\/a> by Monica West (<\/b>June 15th)<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com\/images\/I\/413FmQHpyyL._SX327_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/p>\nThe Sweetness of Water<\/b><\/a> by Nathan Harris (<\/b>July 6th)<\/b><\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com\/images\/I\/51ZHQl-LcsL._SX321_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/p>\n