Survey 2 August 1, 2026

How the Black American Novel Found Its Voice: 20 Books

Every book from this episode, with authors and years.

The books

Clotel; or, The President's Daughter, William Wells Brown, 1853 Covered in Survey 1
Iola Leroy; or, Shadows Uplifted, Frances E. W. Harper, 1892
The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, James Weldon Johnson, 1912
Quicksand, Nella Larsen, 1928
Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston, 1937 Covered in Survey 1
Native Son, Richard Wright, 1940 Covered in Survey 1
The Living Is Easy, Dorothy West, 1948
Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison, 1952 Covered in Survey 1
A Different Drummer, William Melvin Kelley, 1962
Jubilee, Margaret Walker, 1966
Corregidora, Gayl Jones, 1975
Song of Solomon, Toni Morrison, 1977 Covered in Survey 1
The Women of Brewster Place, Gloria Naylor, 1982
The Color Purple, Alice Walker, 1982
Middle Passage, Charles Johnson, 1990
The Known World, Edward P. Jones, 2003 Covered in Survey 1
Salvage the Bones, Jesmyn Ward, 2011
Homegoing, Yaa Gyasi, 2016
The Nickel Boys, Colson Whitehead, 2019
James, Percival Everett, 2024 Covered in Survey 1