11 unmissable books by Black Debut YA Authors in Q3-Q4

Looking for Black debut authors? The final list of our series highlights authors of young adult literature with releases between July and December 2022.

FILM MAKERS: 15 GROUNDBREAKING WOMEN DIRECTORS by Tanisia Moore
September 6 from Chicago Review Press
In Hollywood, women don’t have to be in front of the cameras to shine. Each of the 15 women profiled in Film Makers share a common trait: she is, as Shonda Rhimes says, “First. Only. Different.”
These phenomenal women have entered into the film and television industry often being the first woman at a prestigious film school, the first woman to win an award usually given to their male counterparts, or even the first BIPOC to be nominated as—and win—best director at the Academy Awards.
While their resumes are impressive, it is how they live their lives that has made a greater impact in the communities they serve.

LOVE TIMES INFINITY by Lane Clarke
July 26 from Little, Brown/Poppy
High school junior Michie is struggling to define who she is for her scholarship essays, her big shot at making it into Brown as a first-generation college student. The prompts would be hard for anyone, but Michie's been estranged from her mother since she was seven and her concept of family has long felt murky. ​
​Enter new kid and basketball superstar Derek de la Rosa. He is very cute, very talented, and very much has his eye on Michie, no matter how invisible she believes herself to be. ​
​When Michie's mother unexpectedly reaches out to make amends, and with her scholarship deadlines looming, Michie must choose whether to reopen old wounds or close the door on her past. And as she spends more time with Derek, she'll have to decide how much of her heart she is willing to share. Because while Michie may not know who she is, she's starting to realize who she wants to become, if only she can take a chance on Derek, on herself, and on her future.

THE WITCHERY by S. Isabelle
July 26 from Scholastic​
At a coven academy in Florida, four witches, all with secrets of their own, prepare to protect the town of Haelsford from the seasonal onslaught of bloodthirsty wolves, scheming to break the curse once and for all.

THE UNDEAD TRUTH OF US by Britney S. Lewis
August 9 from Disney Hyperion
​Sixteen-year-old Zharie Young is absolutely certain her mother morphed into a zombie before her untimely death, but she can't seem to figure out why. Why her mother died, why her aunt doesn't want her around, why all her dreams seem suddenly, hopelessly out of reach. And why, ever since that day, she's been seeing zombies everywhere.
Then Bo moves into her apartment building―tall, skateboard in hand, freckles like stars, and an undeniable charm. Z wants nothing to do with him, but when he transforms into a half zombie right before her eyes, something feels different. He contradicts everything she thought she knew about monsters, and she can't help but wonder if getting to know him might unlock the answers to her mother's death.
As Zharie sifts through what's real and what's magic, she discovers a new truth about the world: Love can literally change you―for good or for dead.
In this surrealist journey of grief, fear, and hope, Britney S. Lewis's debut novel explores love, zombies, and everything in between in an intoxicating amalgam of the real and the fantastic.

HOW YOU GROW WINGS by Rimma Onoseta
August 9 from Algonquin Young Readers
Sisters Cheta and Zam couldn't be more different. Cheta, sharp-tongued and stubborn, never shies away from conflict—either at school or at home, where her mother fires abuse at her. Timid Zam escapes most of her mother's anger, skating under the radar and avoiding her sister whenever possible.
​In a turn of good fortune, Zam is invited to live with her aunt's family in the lap of luxury. Jealous, Cheta also leaves home, but to a harder existence that will drive her to terrible decisions.
When the sisters are reunited, Zam alone will recognize just how far Cheta has fallen—and Cheta's fate will rest in Zam's hands.

HOW TO SUCCEED IN WITCHCRAFT by Aislinn Brophy
September 27 from Penguin Random House/Putnam​
An overachieving teen witch vies for a prestigious scholarship at her elite high school in this contemporary YA fantasy for fans of Never Have I Ever and Sabrina the Teen Witch.
Magically brilliant, academically perfect, chronically overcommitted--
​Shay Johnson has all the makings of a successful witch. As a junior at T.K. Anderson Magical Magnet School, she’s determined to win the Brockton Scholarship—her ticket into the university of her dreams. Her competition? Ana freaking Álvarez. The key to victory? Impressing Mr. B, drama teacher and head of the scholarship committee.
When Mr. B asks Shay to star in this year’s aggressively inclusive musical, she warily agrees, even though she’ll have to put up with Ana playing the other lead. But in rehearsals, Shay realizes Ana is . . . not the despicable witch she’d thought. Perhaps she could be a friend—or more. And Shay could use someone in her corner once she becomes the target of Mr. B’s unwanted attention. When Shay learns she’s not the first witch to experience his inappropriate behavior, she must decide if she’ll come forward. But how can she speak out when her future’s on the line?

SETON GIRLS by Charlene Thomas
August 30 from Dutton/Penguin Random House
Seton Academic High is a prep school obsessed with its football team and their thirteen-year conference win streak, a record that players always say they’d never have without Seton’s girls. What exactly Seton girls do to make them so valuable, though, no one ever really says. They're just "the best."
But the team’s quarterback, the younger brother of the Seton star who started the streak, wants more than regular season glory. He wants a state championship before his successor, Seton’s first Black QB, has a chance to overshadow him.
Bigger rewards require bigger risks, and soon the actual secrets to the team's enduring success leak to a small group of girls who suddenly have the power to change their world forever.

MONARCH RISING by Harper Glenn
October 4 from Scholastic
In a chilling near-future New United States of America, Jo Monarch has grown up in the impoverished borderlands of New Georgia. She’s given one chance to change her fate… if she can survive a boy trained to break hearts.
Today is the day Jo Monarch has been wishing on the moon about her entire life. It's the day of the Line Up, when she could be selected to leave her life in the Ashes behind. The day she could move across the mountains to a glittering, rich future.
Once Jo is plucked from the Line Up, the real test begins. She still needs to impress the New Georgia Reps at tonight's Gala, and her path forward leads straight to Cove Wells. The damaged stepson of one of the Reps, Cove has been groomed as an emotional weapon, taught that love is a tool -- and he's set on breaking Jo's heart next.
When a riot breaks out back in the Ashes the night of the Gala, Jo's dreams might all go up in smoke. Can she really have everything she's ever wished for… when it means leaving all her loved ones behind in the fire?
Harper Glenn's debut is as gripping as it is prescient, an unflinching meditation on whether love can save us from ourselves, and what it takes to be born anew.

THE SEVENFOLD HUNTERS by Rose Egal
October 25 from Page Street
There's nothing hijabi alien hunter Abyan wants more than to graduate from Carlisle Academy and finally rid the Earth of the Nosaru, a species hidden in plain sight.
Everything is going to plan until the Nosaru kill one of Abyan's squad mates, leaving the team devastated. To make matters worse, the school admins replace her elite squad member with a sub-par new recruit, Artemis. Despite Artemis failing every test—and bringing the team down with her—their cutthroat instructors refuse to kick her out.
Together Abyan, Artemis, and the rest of the team unravel the mystery of why Artemis is actually there, what the Nosaru really want, and what Carlisle Academy has been hiding from them all.

OTHER SIDE OF THE TRACKS by Charity Alyse
October 25 from Denene Millner Books/Simonteen
There is an unspoken agreement between the racially divided towns of Bayside and Hamilton: no one steps over the train tracks that divide them. Or else.
Not until Zach Whitman anyway, a white boy who moves in from Philly and who dreams of music. When he follows his dream across the tracks to meet his idol, the famous jazz musician who owns The Sunlight Record Shop in Hamilton, he’s flung into Capri Collins’s path.
Capri has big plans: she wants to follow her late mother’s famous footsteps, dancing her way onto Broadway, and leaving this town for good, just like her older brother, Justin, is planning to do when he goes off to college next year. As sparks fly, Zach and Capri realize that they can help each other turn hope into a reality, even if it means crossing the tracks to do it.
But one tragic night changes everything. When Justin’s friend, the star of Hamilton’s football team, is murdered by a white Bayside police officer, the long-standing feud between Bayside and Hamilton becomes an all-out war And Capri, Justin, and Zach are right in the middle of it.

WE DESERVE MONUMENTS by Jas Hammonds
November 29 from Roaring Brook Press
What’s more important? Knowing the truth or keeping the peace?
Seventeen-year-old Avery Anderson is convinced her senior year is ruined when she's uprooted from her life from DC and forced into the hostile home of her terminally ill grandmother, Mama Letty. The tension between Avery’s mom and Mama Letty makes for a frosty arrival and unearths past drama they refuse to talk about. Every time Avery tries to look deeper, she’s turned away, leaving her desperate to learn the secrets that split her family in two.
While tempers flare in her avoidant family, Avery finds friendship in unexpected places: in Simone Cole, her captivating next-door neighbor, and Jade Oliver, daughter of the town’s most prominent family—whose mother’s murder remains unsolved.
As the three girls grow closer—Avery and Simone’s friendship blossoming into romance—the sharp-edged opinions of their small southern town begin to hint at something insidious underneath. The racist history of Bardell, Georgia is rooted in Avery’s family in ways she can’t even imagine. With Mama Letty's health dwindling every day, Avery must decide if digging for the truth is worth toppling the delicate relationships she's built in Bardell—or if some things are better left buried.

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Curated by Mia Tsai
Posted by Sarah Priscus