Celebrating Black Writers for Immigrant Heritage Month
Every year, Immigrant Heritage Month is a time to highlight incredible immigrant authors who are creating stories that often span across countries, mixing in memories of where they are coming from with the experiences of where they are now—a unique perspective that adds incredible depth to their work. As Immigrant Heritage Month 2020 comes to a close, the Library wanted to highlight the work of Black immigrant authors who are writing poignant and intricate stories informed by their immigrant experience.
From London to Brooklyn, immigrating from Haiti or Nigeria, the authors featured on this list explore what it means to have two homes and what the experience of moving from one country to another does for the protagonists of these stories. Often immigrating to the US or the UK, the characters in these stories reflect and process how to hold both their new lives as well as the ones back home, resulting in compelling stories about what it means to be an immigrant.
Immigrant Heritage is often thought of through the lens of Latinx immigrants in the US, but it is important also to recognize Black authors from across the diaspora who have been writing about their experiences for a long time and continue to write about their experiences.
We hope you find your next great read with this list! Please make sure to recommend any more titles in the comments.
The Opposite House by Helen Oyeyemi
Growing up in London, Maja, a singer, always struggled to negotiate her Afro-Cuban background with her physical home. Yemaya is a Santeria emissary who lives in a mysterious Somewherehouse with two doors: one opening to London, the other to Lagos. She is troubled by the ease with which her fellow emissaries have disguised themselves behind the personas of saints and by her inability to recognize them. Interweaving these two tales
Helen Oyeyemi was born in Nigeria and grew up in Lewisham, South London.
No Place to Call Home by J.J. Bola
A tale of love, loss, identity, and belonging, No Place to Call Home tells the story of a family who fled to the United Kingdom from their native Congo to escape the political violence under the dictator, Le Maréchal. The young son Jean starts at a new school and struggles to fit in. An unlikely friendship gets him into a string of sticky situations, eventually leading to a suspension. At home, his parents pressure him to focus on school and get his act together, to behave more like his star-student little sister.
J.J. Bola was born in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and grew up in London.
We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo
Darling is only ten years old, and yet she must navigate a fragile and violent world. In Zimbabwe, Darling and her friends steal guavas, try to get the baby out of young Chipo’s belly, and grasp at memories of Before. Before their homes were destroyed by paramilitary policemen, before the school closed, before the fathers left for dangerous jobs abroad. But Darling has a chance to escape: she has an aunt in America. She travels to this new land in search of America’s famous abundance only to find that her options as an immigrant are perilously few.
NoViolet Bulawayo is from Zimbabwe and studied in the United States.
Open City by Teju Cole
Along the streets of Manhattan, a young Nigerian doctor named Julius wanders, reflecting on his relationships, his recent breakup with his girlfriend, his present, his past. He encounters people from different cultures and classes who will provide insight on his journey—which takes him to Brussels, to the Nigeria of his youth, and into the most unrecognizable facets of his own soul.
Teju Cole was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan, his family is from Nigeria.
Here Comes the Sun by Nicole Dennis-Benn
At an opulent resort in Montego Bay, Margot hustles to send her younger sister, Thandi, to school. Taught as a girl to trade her sexuality for survival, Margot is ruthlessly determined to shield Thandi from the same fate. When plans for a new hotel threaten their village, Margot sees not only an opportunity for her own financial independence but also perhaps a chance to admit a shocking secret: her forbidden love for another woman. As they face the impending destruction of their community, each woman—fighting to balance the burdens she shoulders with the freedom she craves—must confront long-hidden scars.
Nicole Dennis-Benn is from Jamaica and studied in the United States.
How to Read the Air by Dinaw Mengestu
Following the death of his father Yosef, Jonas Woldemariam feels compelled to make sense of the volatile generational and cultural ties that have forged him. Leaving behind his marriage and job in New York, he sets out to retrace his mother and father’s honeymoon as young Ethiopian immigrants and weave together a family history that will take him from the war-torn country of his parents’ youth to a brighter vision of his life in America today. In so doing, he crafts a story that holds the possibility of reconciliation and redemption.
Dinaw Mengestu was born in Ethiopia and grew up in Peoria, Illinois.
Homegoingby Yaa Gyasi
Ghana, eighteenth century: two half sisters are born into different villages, each unaware of the other. One will marry an Englishman and lead a life of comfort in the palatial rooms of the Cape Coast Castle. The other will be captured in a raid on her village, imprisoned in the very same castle, and sold into slavery. Homegoing follows the parallel paths of these sisters and their descendants through eight generations and illuminates slavery’s troubled legacy both for those who were taken and those who stayed—and shows how the memory of captivity has been inscribed on the soul of our nation.
Yaa Gyasi was born in Ghana and grew up in Huntsville, Alabama.
Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue
Jende Jonga, a Cameroonian immigrant living in Harlem, has come to the United States to provide a better life for himself, his wife, Neni, and their six-year-old son. Jende can hardly believe his luck when he lands a job as a chauffeur for Clark Edwards, a senior executive at Lehman Brothers. Clark demands punctuality, discretion, and loyalty—and Jende is eager to please. Clark’s wife, Cindy, even offers Neni temporary work at the Edwardses’ summer home in the Hamptons. With these opportunities, Jende and Neni can at last gain a foothold in America and imagine a brighter future. However, the world of great power and privilege conceals troubling secrets, and soon Jende and Neni notice cracks in their employers’ façades. When the financial world is rocked by the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the Jongas are desperate to keep Jende’s job—even as their marriage threatens to fall apart. As all four lives are dramatically upended, Jende and Neni are forced to make an impossible choice.
Imbolo Mbue was born in Cameroon, and studied in the United States.
Everything Insideby Edwidge Danticat
A gorgeous collection of stories about community, family and love; about the forces that pull us together or drive us apart—a book rich with vividly imagined characters, hard-won wisdom, and humanity. In these eight stories by widely acclaimed, prizewinning author Danticat, a romance unexpectedly sparks between two wounded friends; a marriage ends for what seems like noble reasons, but leads to irreperable consequences; a young woman holds on to an impossible dream, even as she fights for her life, two lovers reunite after the biggest tragedy in their country and in their lives. Vividly set in places from Miami to Port-au-Prince to a small unnamed country in the Caribbean and beyond, these beautiful and moving stories showcase one of the world's most renowned voices at her absolute best.
Edwidge Danticat was born in Haiti, and partially grew up in Brooklyn, New York.
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Summaries provided via NYPL’s catalog, which draws from multiple sources. Click through to each book’s title for more.