Downloadable African American Titles

We assist many of our BPL patrons with the how-tos in the use of their downloadable devices to read or listen to our free e-books/audiobooks. While doing so many often ask if we have African American authors in our collection. The quick answer is yes, we have many. We are then asked for a list of those authors. This is not as simple as it seems, especially given the authors’ varied subject matter and vastness of the Jefferson County Library Cooperative African American downloadable collection. We have some African American authors who have only a few titles in our e-books/audiobooks downloadable collection, and others whose titles are quite a bit more significant—some have as many as thirty titles in our downloadable collection. Narrowing the focus to a few is very difficult. So I have simply chosen to identify some of those African American fiction writers for which we have a significant number of titles and many patron requests:

Rochelle Alers ● Vanessa Davis Griggs ● Mary Monroe

Adrianne Byrd ● E. Lynn Harris ● Mary B. Morrison

Wahida Clark ● Donna Hill ● Toni Morrison

Pearl Cleage ● Brenda Jackson ● Noire

Eric Jerome Dickey ● Beverly Jenkins ● Kimberla Lawson Roby

Gwynne Forster ● Lutishia Lovely ● Carl Weber

Also, although downloadable accessibility has grown by leaps and bounds over the past few years, there are still many titles that publishers have not made available in downloadable format. A good example of this can be seen when we look at popular authors such as Gwyneth Bolton, Terry McMillan, Nikki Turner, and Zane. Although we have numerous titles in physical books and audiobooks, many of their titles and those of other African American authors might not be available in downloadable form yet.

Lastly, as previously stated, we have many more African American authors aside from the above list, many of whom write non-fiction, as well.

Please go to our downloadable website to determine if a particular author you might be interested in is available.

This just touches the surface of the African American authors we have with our downloadable collection, but hopefully this will give you a small idea of what we have to offer. As usual, if you need any help with your downloadables, please don’t hesitate to give us a call at 226-3600.

NOTE: Karyn Davis-West will be conducting four instructional classes in April on how to download e-books and audiobooks from the collection. Click here for dates and times.

Submitted by Karyn Davis-West
Information/Circulation Department
Central Library