The October Stack: Must-Read Black Literature & Cultural Books

Oct 1

October brings with it a certain sharpness—of air, of color, and of thought. It’s the perfect month to dive into stories that challenge, unsettle, and inspire. The Reading List #10 gathers together works that ask urgent questions about history, memory, identity, and imagination.

From Idris Goodwin’s King of the Neuroverse, which stretches our understanding of creativity and consciousness, to Amber McBride’s The Leaving Room, a tender exploration of grief and survival, this collection touches on both the intimate and the epic. P. Djèlí Clark’s Ringshout continues to blur the line between horror and history, while Robin Coste Lewis’s Archive of Desire and Brandon Taylor’s Minor Black Figures remind us how poetry and prose can preserve and complicate memory.

There is sharp commentary, too Tiffany D. Jackson’s The Scammer pulls us into questions of trust and illusion, while Jelani Cobb’s Three or More is a Riot and Anny Phillip’s A Dream Deferred make us confront the ways movements, dreams, and struggles are remembered or distorted.

This list is more than a set of titles it’s a mirror, asking us to consider how voices, both past and present, illuminate the unfinished story of who we are.