As we look ahead to 2026, Cassava Republic is thrilled to share a first glimpse of next year’s publishing list. From compelling memoirs and bold translated fiction to debut novels, award-winning non-fiction, and vibrant children’s books, these titles showcase powerful voices, rich storytelling from the Black world!
Fiction
MY OWN DEAR PEOPLE by Dwight Thompson
Literary Fiction | Pub Date: 21st April 2026 | ISBN: 978-1-913175-88-7
It is not a ghost that haunts the newly independent life of Nyjah Messado; it is the living memory of a violation and a silence so thick it corrodes the heart. After witnessing Maude Dallmeyer, a young trainee teacher, being dragged off by his friends to be raped, the masculine code at his all-boys private school demands only one response from him: silence. And so he remains silent through high school, through university, and beyond. When he returns to Montego Bay, Nyjah must navigate a city smoothed over for tourists but hostile to its working-class residents, a place shaped by politics, street gangs, and the lingering colonial ethos.
Brutal, lyrical, and unflinching, My Own Dear People is a story of coming of age in a world violent to women and LGBTQ+ people, and the uneasy road toward self-forgiveness. It is a novel about memory, courage, and the cost of silence.
About the Author: Dwight Thompson is the award-winning author of the novel Death Register and has published short stories in PREE and the Caribbean Writer. He won the Charlotte and Isidor Paiewonsky Prize, was short-listed for the 2012 Small Axe Literary Competition, and was long-listed for the 2021 and 2022 Commonwealth Short Story Prize. My Own Dear People is his second novel. He was born and raised in Jamaica, and currently works at an international school in Hiroshima, Japan.
THE AQUATICS by Osvalde Lewat. Translated by Maren Baudet Lackner
Literary Fiction | Pub Date: 19th May 2026 | ISBN: 9781913175764 | Paperback
Katmé has spent years playing the perfect politician’s wife, but when her best friend Samy, a daring activist artist and openly gay man, is arrested under Zambuena’s draconian laws, she is forced to confront the world she has always hidden behind. As political rivals exploit their connection, Katmé must navigate a society resistant to change, risking everything to save Samy. But even her courage may not be enough—the greatest danger comes from the Aquatics, a marginalized community living in a flooded slum, whose suffering Samy’s art tried to expose.
The Aquatics is a gripping, emotionally charged story of friendship, courage, and defiance. It explores the cost of standing up to injustice and the power of one person to challenge the status quo.
About the Author: Osvalde Lewat is a Cameroonian author. Osvalde is a renowned documentary filmmaker whose work has been awarded the prestigious Peabody Award. Her debut novel, The Aquatics, won the Pan-African Prize for Literature, the French Academy Literature Prize, and the Kourouma Prize.
About the Translator: Maren Baudet Lackner is an American literary translator from the French who is passionate about bringing exceptional works of literature by traditionally underrepresented authors to English-speaking readers. She has published over a dozen titles with major imprints in the United Kingdom and United States and is the recipient of a 2023 PEN Presents Award and a 2024 PEN Translates Award. She also received Albertine Translation grants for her work in 2023 and 2024. Maren holds advanced degrees from Yale and the Sorbonne and lives near Paris with her family.
THE SHIPIKISHA CLUB by Mubanga Kalimamukwento
Literary Fiction | Pub Date: 21st July 2026 | ISBN: 9781913175900 | Paperback
Sali, a working mother of three, is on trial for the murder of her husband, Kasunga, accused of shooting him after a heated fight in their bedroom. Through a distracted legal aid lawyer, Sali pleads not guilty. 14 years earlier, Sali, chafing against the endless pressure from her conservative, God-fearing family, has an affair with the wealthy, married Doc. But on the day she discovers she is pregnant with his child, Doc dies, leaving Salu to pursue a loveless marriage with Kasunga to escape the shame of being an unwed mother.
Through a braided narrative woven both before and during the trial, Sali navigates her husband’s infidelities and alcohol-filled nights, their money troubles, her postnatal depression, raising her teenage daughter Ntashé, and an attempted abortion in silence. Until the day her marriage finally fails to endure—shipikisha, considered the ultimate dereliction of wifely duty in Zambia. Until the day she speaks her mind, and Kasunga puts a gun in her face.
About the Author: Mubanga Kalimamukwento is the author of Obligations to the Wounded (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2024), Another Mother Does Not Come When Yours Dies (Wayfarer, 2025), unmarked graves Tusculum, 2022), and The Mourning Bird (Jacana, 2019). Her work appears in adda, Overland, Isele, Kweli, Netflix, and elsewhere. She has edited for Shenandoah, the Water Stone Review, Doek!, and Safundi, and mentors at the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop. Mubanga founded Ubwali Literary Magazine. She is a PhD student in the department of Gender, Women and Sexualities Studies with a minor in Development Studies and Social Change at the University of Minnesota, where she researches Zambian married women who are long-term survivors of HIV.
PILLAGING THE DEAD by Degol Hailu
Fiction (Political Satire) | Pub Date: 29th September 2026 | ISBN: 9781913175788 | Paperback
Tarik makes a decent living as a street hawker, eking out a quiet life under a repressive regime. That changes the day he is caught selling banned books, beaten, and warned never to return to the streets again. Shaken and disillusioned, Tarik is drawn into activism, navigating a dangerous political world where every choice carries risk and every truth threatens power.
An enthralling mix of thriller and satire, Pillaging the Dead is a page-turning story of resistance, courage, and the absurdities of a world stacked against the ordinary man.
About the Author: Degol Hailu was born in Ethiopia. He later moved to the United Kingdom and earned a PhD in economics from SOAS, University of London where he also worked as a research fellow. He then joined the United Nations and worked in many cities including New York, Brasilia, Port of Spain, Brussels and Addis Ababa. He is widely published in economic development. At present, Degol lives and writes in London. Pillaging the Dead is his debut novel.
Non-Fiction
THE POWER OF INVISIBLE by Paula Moreno
Non-Fiction (Memoir) | Pub Date: 14th April 2026 | ISBN: 9781913175986 | Hardback
The Power of the Invisible tells the remarkable true story of Paula Moreno, who, at just twenty-eight, became Colombia’s Minister of Culture, making history as the first Afro-Colombian woman to hold any ministerial office in the country. In her own words, Paula shares her journey from her upbringing in Colombia to overcoming formidable challenges and breaking barriers, achieving milestones that were once unimaginable. This inspiring memoir highlights the power, resilience, and vision of women of colour, offering a candid look at how far progress has come and how much further we still need to go to achieve equality, recognition, and opportunity for all.
About the Author: Paula Moreno is celebrated as Colombia’s youngest and first Black woman minister and as the youngest and first Afro-Latina member of the Ford Foundation Board of Trustees and the former chairwoman of the Program Committee. As the president of Corporación Manos Visibles, she directs one of Latin America’s foremost NGOs championing racial equality. Her work also extends globally as she pioneers initiatives across eleven countries with significant Afro-descendant populations
DANCING WITH JINNS: BLACK WOMEN WRITE ON TABOO edited by Ellah Wakatama and Momtaza Mehri
Non-Fiction | Pub Date: 23rd June 2026 | ISBN: 9781913175849 | Hardback
A fearless and provocative collection of 11 essays that amplifies powerful voices confronting the taboos shaping cultures across Africa. With eloquence and candour, these essays tackle subjects often shrouded in silence, AIDS, menstruation, mental health, grief, sexuality, and patriarchy, offering fresh perspectives that are both deeply personal and strikingly universal. Each essay offers a powerful exploration of the intersections between personal experiences, theory, and cultural norms, creating a mosaic that is at once intimate and universal. This collection pushes beyond whispers and polite conversation, opening a vital space for dialogue on identity, history, and the unspoken rules that govern our lives.
About the Editors
Ellah Wakatama Allfrey, OBE, Hon. FRSL, is the Editor-at-Large at Canongate Books, a senior Research Fellow at Manchester University, and Chair of the AKO Caine Prize for African Writing. She was the founding Publishing Director of the Indigo Press.
Momtaza Mehri is a Somali-British poet and essayist. She has won an Eric Gregory Award, the Forward Prize for Best First Collection, the Manchester Poetry Prize, and the Glenna Luschei Prize for African Poetry.
THE MOON WILL NOT BURN US by Ricci Shryock
Creative Non-fiction | Pub Date: 19th August 2026 | ISBN: 9781913175863 | Hardback
Set against the backdrop of Guinea-Bissau’s brutal 11-year war for independence, The Moon Will Not Burn Us tells the extraordinary true story of Joana Gomes. At just 13, after the murder of her father, Joana is drawn into a fight for justice and joins a group of fearless female combatants whose courage proves pivotal in securing their nation’s freedom.
Their struggle not only helped end a century of colonial rule in Africa but also highlighted the indispensable—and often overlooked—role of women in shaping history. Behind the victories were immense personal sacrifices, battles fought both on the frontlines and within society’s expectations.
A powerful reminder that liberation movements are won not only by armies, but by the women whose bravery and resilience make history possible.
About the Author: Ricci Shryock is a writer and photographer who lives in Dakar, Senegal. Born in a small town in the American Midwest, she moved to Dakar when she was one week shy of her 25th birthday in 2008. Since then has tried to listen as best she can and unlearn certain narratives, so that the stories she is privy to revolve around West African realities being the center, the beginning. Indebted to all the people who have let her into their lives, so many have taught her new ways of seeing. She hopes her stories can allow others to see things differently, too. Her journalism, published in The New Yorker, The New York Times, and other publications — has focused on a variety of topics from human movement to vibrant Senegalese fashion. Her favorite fashion though is that made by her husband, while they raise their two daughters in the vibrant and warm city by the sea.
ELEMENTAL BLACKNESS by Cherise Morris
Winner of the Global Black Women’s Non-fiction Manuscript Prize
Non-Fiction | Pub Date: 22nd September 2026 | ISBN: 978-1-913175-92-4
Written in a bold, experimental form, The Cosmic Matter Of Black Lives interweaves poetry, ritual, essays and prayers to paint a rich portrait of Blackness in all its multifaceted complexity.
Centring on the four elements of water, fire, earth and air, The Cosmic Matter Of Black Lives shows us how Blackness, the environment and even Morris herself have been shaped and shifted by structures of white supremacy. From the trauma of the Middle Passage, to the grief of George Floyd, and from slave uprisings to the Flint water crisis, Morris’ eclectic and electrifying prose takes us on a whirlwind tour of what it means to be Black in America, alongside intimate recollections of her own life, from coming of age as a young girl in the country, to finding a new home in Detroit.
About the Author: Cherise Morris is a writer, interdisciplinary artist, and spirit worker born and raised in rural Virginia and living in Detroit, MI. Her work has been published in The Iowa Review, Scalawag, and Harvard Divinity Bulletin among others. Her essays have twice been recognized as notable works of literary nonfiction in The Best American Essays Series 2018 and 2019 and have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Cherise won the Inaugural Global Black Woman’s Non-Fiction Manuscript Prize in 2024. Cherise is based in Detroit, Michigan, United States
THE BLACK BEAUTY MODEL AGENCY by Desta Haile
Runner Up of the Global Black Women’s Non-fiction Manuscript Prize
Non-Fiction | Pub Date: 17th October 2026 | ISBN: 9781913175948 | Hardback
The Black Beauty Model Agency is the story of one of the first Black model agencies, based in 1960-70s New York, the wonderful women that ran it, the phenomenal people they signed, and their collective, cultural, diasporic impact; written by the daughter of one of the models. More than just a history, The Black Beauty Model Agency takes readers behind the doors of the eponymous agency to showcase the stories of the people that brought it to life, from their many multi-hyphenate talents, knowledge and power, to their communities and families. Haile skillfully uncovers this hidden corner of African American history to reveal how its impact reverberates to this day, an impact that has crossed continents and generations, rooted in feminism, allyship, memory, heritage, resistance, survival and of course, beauty.
About the Author: Desta Haile is a British-Eritrean writer, educator, and musician. She is the Founder & Director of Languages through Music, an award-winning creative learning platform. As Deputy Director of the Royal African Society (2021-2023), she helped deliver the 10th anniversary editions of Film Africa and Africa Writes. Her work has been published by Specimen Press, Afritondo, and Bad Form Review. Desta holds an MA in Black British Writing from Goldsmiths, University of London.
Children
A BOUNCY 123 by Sade Fadipe
Children’s Picture Book | Pub. date: 16th June 2026 | ISBN: 9781913175825 | Paperback
Join Adanah and her friend Kolade as they go running around their village in this fun 123 adventure book! This colourful picture book set in Nigeria captures the fun of playing outdoors, as Adanah and Kolade chase two bouncy tyres around their village, clambering over rocks and encountering spiders and more! Written in a fun bouncing style, children will learn to count while having fun as they join Adanah and Kolade’s adventure.
About the Author: Sade Fadipe is a school teacher and has taught in primary schools in Nigeria and England From 2006-2010, Sade worked in Abuja, Nigeria, on a reading initiative for Nigerian public primary schools. She trained teachers on the use of fiction books and helped create class-based reading corners, to enhance early reading. She currently lives and teaches in Essex.
HENRIETTA LACKS: THE MOTHER OF MODERN MEDICINE by Dawne Allette
Children’s Non-Fiction | Pub. date: 5th August 2026 ISBN: 9781913175276 | Paperback
Henrietta Lacks: The Mother of Modern Medicine introduces young readers to the remarkable story of story of Henrietta Lacks, an African American woman whose cancer cells revolutionised medical science. This book charts Henrietta’s life, from her upbringing in Virginia through to the births of her five children, before she passed away aged31 from cervical cancer. Henrietta’s cells lived on, taking from her tumour while she was undergoing surgery without her knowledge, leading to the discovery of the first ‘immortal cell line’, and giving Henrietta the name ‘the mother of modern medicine’.
About the Author: Dawne Allette is a native of Grenada, West Indies, and has written a number of children’s picture books that are noted for the inspiration, lyricism and humour. She has lived in Britain and Iran and now resides in Baltimore, USA. She teaches creative writing and is a literacy programme facilitator for Baltimore Public Schools. She is also a journalist for the Baltimore Times newspaper.
HASSAN AND HASSANA SHARE EVERYTHING by Elnathan John
Children’s Picture Book | Pub. date: 10th November 2026 | ISBN: 9781913175405| Paperback
Hassan and Hassana are twins, and they’re practically identical. Even though one is a boy and the other a girl, ever since they were babies people have had trouble telling them apart. For their 8th birthday, Hassan gets a bike and Hassana gets drums. Hassan’s friends tell him that girls can’t ride bikes, leaving him with an important decision to make. Will he decide to share, or will he let Hassana feel left out? A beautiful story about sharing, kindness and standing up for what is right.
About the Author: Elnathan John is a novelist and satirist. His short stories were shortlisted for the Caine Prize for African Writing in 2013 and 2015. His satire collection Be(com)ing Nigerian, A Guide was published to critical acclaim in 2019. His debut novel, Born on a Tuesday—translated into German and French—won a Betty Trask Award and the Prix Les Afriques. He is a 2015 Civitella Ranieri Fellow and was a judge for the 2019Man Booker International Prize. He currently lives in Berlin. Hassan and Hassana Share Everything is his first children’s book.
