Powerful Prose by Poets

The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois

An Oprah’s Book Club Novel

By: Honoree Fanonne Jeffers
Narrated by: Adenrele Ojo, Karen Chilton & Prentice Onayemi
Length: 29 hours 48 minutes

“At 29 hours this one might seem like quite a commitment, but after traveling the century with them, you’ll deeply miss the echoes of the voices of Ailey and Belle and even good old Uncle Root. Read more

Memorial Drive

A Daughter's Memoir

By: Natasha Trethewey
Narrated by: Natasha Trethewey
Length: 5 hours 9 minutes

“When poets write memoirs, I read them. And this shocking coming-of-age reflection on violence, race and motherless daughters evoked a subtle rage that later boiled and then recoiled in me by the end of the book. I am so grateful to witness Threthewey's survival on the page and in her own voice, as read in the audiobook. Unforgettable. Read more

Bestiary

A Novel

By: K-Ming Chang
Narrated by: Catherine Ho, Nancy Wu & Ren Hanami
Length: 8 hours 59 minutes

NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS’ CHOICE • Three generations of Taiwanese American women are haunted by the myths of their homeland in this spellbinding, visceral debut about one family’s queer desires, violent impulses, and buried secrets.

“Gorgeous and gorgeously grotesque . . . Every line of this sensuous, magical-realist marvel is utterly... Read more

Memphis: A Read with Jenna Pick

A Novel

By: Tara M. Stringfellow
Narrated by: Karen Murray, Adenrele Ojo & Tara Stringfellow
Length: 9 hours 23 minutes

“Centering Black joy above all, Stringfellow’s life-affirming debut follows three generations of unforgettable women in a gifted but tested family. Readers will cry, laugh, and sing. I hope we read Stringfellow for a long, long time. Read more

Nightcrawling

A Novel (Oprah's Book Club)

By: Leila Mottley
Narrated by: Joniece Abbott-Pratt
Length: 10 hours 48 minutes

“Oakland’s own Leila Mottley is the youngest person to be nominated for a Booker Prize. She began writing Nightcrawling, a novel loosely based on the OPD trafficking scandal, when she was attending Oakland School for the Arts, and it was published before she turned 20. The triumph of this story is the way that Mottley manages to present the... Read more

When We Were Sisters

A Novel

By: Fatimah Asghar
Narrated by: Farah Kidwai, Kamran Khan & Deepti Gupta
Length: 5 hours 23 minutes

“Brimming with poetic lyricism, When We Were Sisters encourages you to rethink the definitions of 'family' and 'home'! Would highly recommend! Read more

Martyr!

A novel

By: Kaveh Akbar
Narrated by: Arian Moayed
Length: 10 hours 39 minutes

“Kaveh Akbar is a major new voice in American literature and Martyr! is his tour de force. In a mix of penetrating insight and profoundly funny stories, this entertaining and moving tale holds a mirror up to our society. Read more

Original Sins

The (Mis)education of Black and Native Children and the Construction of AmericanRacism

By: Eve L. Ewing
Narrated by: Robin Miles & Eve L. Ewing
Length: 12 hours 14 minutes

“In our house, we are massive Eve Ewing fans and can’t wait to read every book her visionary mind gifts us. Original Sins reveals how our schools have their foundation in efforts of forced cultural assimilation, reinforcing racial hierarchies, and indoctrination with the emerging worker/consumer ethos. While this is a bleak and heavy history, it... Read more

Where There Was Fire

A Novel

By: John Manuel Arias
Narrated by: Adriana Sananes
Length: 10 hours 25 minutes

"Bilingual Spanish/English audiobook narrator Sananes enlivens Costa Rican American poet/writer Arias’ multigenerational saga." —Booklist

A lush and lyrical debut novel about a Costa Rican family wrestling with a deadly secret, from rising literary star John Manuel Arias

Costa Rica, 1968. When a lethal fire erupts at the American Fruit Company’s... Read more

Salt Houses

By: Hala Alyan
Narrated by: Leila Buck
Length: 12 hours 15 minutes

Winner of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize and the Arab American Book Award A Best Book of the Year: NPR • NYLON • Kirkus • Bustle • BookPage "What does home mean when you no longer have a house—or a homeland? This beautiful novel traces one Palestinian family's struggle with that question and how it can haunt generations. … This is an example of... Read more

How We Fight For Our Lives

By: Saeed Jones
Narrated by: Saeed Jones
Length: 5 hours 34 minutes

“Saeed Jones does amazing transformative things with words. This stunning coming-of-age memoir is no exception. Prepare yourself for intense vulnerability as he fights to find and take up space as a Black gay man growing up in the American South. Read more

Sour Heart

Stories

By: Jenny Zhang
Narrated by: Greta Jung, Jenny Zhang, Kim Mai Guest, Nancy Wu, Emily Woo Zeller & Samantha Quan
Length: 9 hours 59 minutes

A sly debut story collection that conjures the experience of adolescence through the eyes of Chinese American girls growing up in New York City—for readers of Zadie Smith, Helen Oyeyemi, and Junot Díaz

A fresh new voice emerges with the arrival of Sour Heart, establishing Jenny Zhang as a frank and subversive interpreter of the immigrant... Read more

How to Pronounce Knife

Stories

By: Souvankham Thammavongsa
Narrated by: James Tang & Kulap Vilaysack
Length: 2 hours 59 minutes

“A great collection of varied stories of Laotian immigrants in Canada. It showcases immigrant lives in their various forms. And lots of food is discussed! Just lovely. Read more

How the Word Is Passed

A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America

By: Clint Smith
Narrated by: Clint Smith
Length: 10 hours 6 minutes

“From plantation to Angola Prison. From Blandford Cemetery in Petersburg, VA to the African Burial Ground in New York City. From Île de Gorée to Whitney Plantation. From the Emancipation Proclamation to Juneteenth. Clint Smith takes us on an unforgettable journey through the history of slavery in the United States, revealing many truths we’ve... Read more

A Ghost in the Throat

By: Doireann Ní Ghríofa
Narrated by: Siobhán McSweeney
Length: 7 hours 51 minutes

When we first met, I was a child, and she had been dead for centuries.



On discovering her murdered husband's body, an eighteenth-century Irish noblewoman drinks handfuls of his blood and composes an extraordinary lament. Eibhlín Dubh Ní Chonaill's poem travels through the centuries, finding its way to a new mother who has narrowly avoided her own... Read more

War and Me

A Memoir

By: Faleeha Hassan
Narrated by: Christine Tawfik
Length: 12 hours 47 minutes

An intimate memoir about coming of age in a tight-knit working-class family during Iraq’s seemingly endless series of wars.Faleeha Hassan became intimately acquainted with loss and fear while growing up in Najaf, Iraq. Now, in a deeply personal account of her life, she remembers those she has loved and lost.As a young woman, Faleeha hated seeing... Read more

How to Say Babylon

A Memoir

By: Safiya Sinclair
Narrated by: Safiya Sinclair
Length: 16 hours 46 minutes

“Jamaican-born poet Safiya Sinclair’s memoir about growing up in a strict Rastafarian household is one of the most powerful stories I have experienced in a long time. I learned so much about Jamaica, Rastafarianism, and this extraordinary woman listening to How to Say Babylon. Sinclair’s exquisite prose, heard in her own voice is ravishing. Her... Read more

The Book of Delights

By: Ross Gay
Narrated by: Ross Gay
Length: 5 hours

“For those of you having a rough year, take comfort and inspiration from Ross Gay’s aptly titled The Book of Delights. After going through a bumpy patch himself, Gay tasked himself with a year’s worth of essays, each day focusing on something delightful. What resulted is a warm, thoughtful range of reflections on tomato plants, high fives, and... Read more