The Audacious Book Club List
Author and cultural critic Roxane Gay launched The Audacious Book Club in January 2021 as part of her newsletter, The Audacity. The club highlights bold fiction and nonfiction, particularly work by underrepresented writers, through monthly discussions and author conversations.
| Book Title | Author | Series | Pick |
|---|---|---|---|
| Black Futures | Kimberly Drew Jenna Wortham | Standalone | January 2021 Pick |
| Detransition, Baby | Torrey Peters | Standalone | February 2021 Pick |
| The Removed | Brandon Hobson | Standalone | March 2021 Pick |
| Milk Blood Heat | Dantiel W. Moniz | Collection | April 2021 Pick |
| Libertie | Kaitlyn Greenidge | Standalone | May 2021 Pick |
| Of Women and Salt | Gabriela Garcia | Standalone | June 2021 Pick |
| The Five Wounds | Kirstin Valdez Quade | Standalone | July 2021 Pick |
| Somebody's Daughter | Ashley C. Ford | Non-Fiction | August 2021 Pick |
| The Renunciations | Donika Kelly | Poetry | September 2021 Pick |
| The Heart Principle | Helen Hoang | The Kiss Quotient | October 2021 Pick |
| Sometimes I Trip On How Happy We Could Be | Nichole Perkins | Non-Fiction | November 2021 Pick |
| Afterparties: Stories | Anthony Veasna So | Collection | December 2021 Pick |
| Noor | Nnedi Okorafor | Standalone | January 2022 Pick |
| To Paradise | Hanya Yanagihara | Standalone | February 2022 Pick |
| How High We Go in the Dark | Sequoia Nagamatsu | Standalone | March 2022 Pick |
| Ancestor Trouble: A Reckoning and a Reconciliation | Maud Newton | Non-Fiction | April 2022 Pick |
| Memphis | Tara M. Stringfellow | Standalone | May 2022 Pick |
| Trust | Hernan Diaz | Standalone | June 2022 Pick |
| Woman of Light | Kali Fajardo-Anstine | Standalone | July 2022 Pick |
| Counterfeit | Kirstin Chen | Standalone | August 2022 Pick |
| How to Read Now | Elaine Castillo | Non-Fiction | September 2022 Pick |
| Jollof Rice and Other Revolutions | Omolola Ijeoma Ogunyemi | Collection | October 2022 Pick |
| Less Is Lost | Andrew Sean Greer | Arthur Less | November 2022 Pick |
| Daughters of Smoke and Fire | Ava Homa | Standalone | December 2022 Pick |
| Age of Vice | Deepti Kapoor | Standalone | January 2023 Pick |
| The Survivalists | Kashana Cauley | Standalone | February 2023 Pick |
| Hijab Butch Blues: A Memoir | Lamya H | Non-Fiction | March 2023 Pick |
| Poverty, by America | Matthew Desmond | Non-Fiction | April 2023 Pick |
| Chain-Gang All-Stars | Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah | Standalone | May 2023 Pick |
| Yellowface | R.F. Kuang | Standalone | June 2023 Pick |
| Rivermouth | Alejandra Oliva | Non-Fiction | July 2023 Pick |
| Ripe | Sarah Rose Etter | Standalone | August 2023 Pick |
| The Militia House | John Milas | Standalone | August 2023 Pick |
| Witness: Stories | Jamel Brinkley | Collection | September 2023 Pick |
| Land of Milk and Honey | C Pam Zhang | Standalone | October 2023 Pick |
| The Unsettled | Ayana Mathis | Standalone | November 2023 Pick |
| Hot Springs Drive | Lindsay Hunter | Standalone | December 2023 Pick |
| Start Here: Instructions for Becoming a Better Cook: A Cookbook | Sohla El-Waylly | Non-Fiction | January 2024 Pick |
| Martyr! | Kaveh Akbar | Standalone | February 2024 Pick |
| Wandering Stars | Tommy Orange | Standalone | March 2024 Pick |
| Lessons for Survival | Emily Raboteau | Non-Fiction | April 2024 Pick |
| The Real Americans | Rachel Khong | Standalone | May 2024 Pick |
| With My Back to the World | Victoria Chang | Poetry | May 2024 Pick |
| Bite by Bite: Nourishments and Jamborees | Aimee Nezhukumatathil | Non-Fiction | June 2024 Pick |
| Cuckoo | Gretchen Felker-Martin | Standalone | July 2024 Pick |
| The Sons of El Rey | Alex Espinoza | Standalone | August 2024 Pick |
| The Rich People Have Gone Away | Regina Porter | Standalone | September 2024 Pick |
| We're Alone | Edwidge Danticat | Non-Fiction | October 2024 Pick |
| Women's Hotel | Daniel M. Lavery | Women's Hotel | November 2024 Pick |
| The Message | Ta-Nehisi Coates | Non-Fiction | December 2024 Pick |
| Private Rites | Julia Armfield | Standalone | January 2025 Pick |
| Homeseeking | Karissa Chen | Standalone | February 2025 Pick |
| Back After This | Linda Holmes | Standalone | March 2025 Pick |
| The Dream Hotel | Laila Lalami | Standalone | April 2025 Pick |
| My Documents | Kevin Nguyen | Standalone | May 2025 Pick |
| Marsha | Tourmaline | Non-Fiction | June 2025 Pick |
| Great Black Hope | Rob Franklin | Standalone | July 2025 Pick |
| Nice Girls Don't Win | Parvati Shallow | Non-Fiction | August 2025 Pick |
| Moderation | Elaine Castillo | Standalone | September 2025 Pick |
| Resting Bitch Face | Taylor Byas | Poetry | September 2025 Pick |
| The Wilderness | Angela Flournoy | Standalone | October 2025 Pick |
| We Survived the Night | Julian Brave NoiseCat | Standalone | November 2025 Pick |
| Cursed Daughters | Oyinkan Braithwaite | Standalone | December 2025 Pick |
| The Hitch | Sara Levine | Standalone | January 2026 Pick |
| The Age of Calamities | Senaa Ahmad | Collection | February 2026 Pick |
| Tell Me How You Eat | Amber Husain | Non-Fiction | March 2026 Pick |
| Black. Single. Mother. | Jamilah Lemieux | Non-Fiction | April 2026 Pick |
| The Violence | Adriana E. Ramirez | Non-Fiction | May 2026 Pick |
| John of John | Douglas Stuart | Standalone | June 2026 Pick |
| Pool House | Mary H.K. Choi | Standalone | July 2026 Pick |
| The Simp | Roshan Sethi | Standalone | August 2026 Pick |
| Reality TV for Snobs | Ali Barthwell | Non-Fiction | September 2026 Pick |
| The Disappearers | Marlon James | Standalone | October 2026 Pick |
| The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman | Deesha Philyaw | Standalone | October 2026 Pick |
| The Four Wives and Five Deaths of Richard Milford | Nafissa Thompson-Spires | Standalone | November 2026 Pick |
Notable The Audacious Book Club Picks
Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters:
This defining early selection won the PEN/Hemingway Award and made history with its Women’s Prize longlisting.
Trust by Hernan Diaz:
Chosen before it won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, this formally inventive novel became one of the club’s most decorated selections.
This bestselling satire of race, authorship, and the publishing industry became one of the club’s most widely recognized picks.
A New York Times bestseller and 2024 National Book Award finalist, Akbar’s debut was a major critical standout.
The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates:
Coates’s first new nonfiction book in nearly a decade became a number-one national bestseller and a high-profile club selection.
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