October 2026 New Releases and News | Issue 2

Greetings Wordies, summer is officially over and Black History Month UK is upon us. As such, I have lots of news for you today, and if you are based in London, I also have a free event that I’m very excited to tell you about!

This post contains affiliate links. This means I may receive a small commission if you make a purchase through some of the links, at no additional cost to you.

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News

First, the Black British Booklist has a logo of its own.

While The Abundant Word is the name of the platform and is focused on Black, indie, and diverse readers and writers, The Black British Booklist has rapidly developed an identity of its own, and with over 450 books now waiting to be discovered, I decided it deserved its own logo. So, I got to work sketching on my iPad and came up with this. I totally love it! I think it captures the vibe perfectly and I hope you love it too.

I even used the new logo to create some autumnal wallpapers, which are free to paid subscribers over at buymeacoffee.

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You Are Invited

As some of you know, a year ago I was selected to be part of a year-long residency at Somerset House, as part of their Black Business Residency.

Well, the residency is almost over and we’re having a showcase!

On Thursday 8 October, I’ll be showcasing the Black British Booklist at Somerset House in London, along with the other 23 creative businesses in my cohort.

At my little section, I’ll have:

📚 A mini library of books by Black British authors

🔎 The Black British Booklist to explore and scan

🔖 A Bookmark Decoration Station where you can sit down and make your own bookmark

There’ll also be video games, music, screenings, workshops, dance, demonstrations and lots of other creative things happening throughout the evening.

And tickets are free!

It will be held in part of The Exchange, part of the offices we all work in, so you get to have a little look at part of building that isn’t always accessible to visitors.

If you’re around, come and say hello!

📅 Thursday 8 October 2026

⏰ 6–10pm

📍 Somerset House, London

🎟️ Free entry

Tickets: https://my.somersethouse.org.uk/10310/10311

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Black British book releases in October 2026

1 October: Pillaging the Dead by Degol Hailu

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Tarik is a university student selling banned books, pirated music and his own political cartoons to commuters caught in the city’s endless traffic. But when a police raid turns violent and lands him in the custody of the feared Central Investigation Bureau, Tarik is drawn into a dangerous world of underground printers, dissidents, activists and state surveillance.

As he navigates corrupt officials, revolutionary artists, secret police and citizens struggling to survive under authoritarian rule, Tarik begins to understand the true cost of dissent in a country where satire is treated as a threat to the state.

Darkly comic, propulsive and deeply unsettling, Pillaging the Dead captures the absurdities of life under dictatorship with sharp wit and emotional force. Degol Hailu’s debut announces an exciting new voice in contemporary African fiction.

22 October: Bitter Melon by Rose Little

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Jalissa and her dad aren’t close, but when he invites her to Jamaica, his homeland, for the first time, she says yes.

She’s running from heartbreak and a loss of her own; he’s running out of time.

As they travel through sun-drenched towns and navigate tangled family roots, old wounds open and long-held silences begin to break. They’re both trying to outrun something-but along the way, they cross paths with people whose stories shift their own, helping them face the past, reckon with the present and reimagine what comes next.

Bitter Melon is a tender, funny, heart-bruised road trip into memory, mortality and the fierce, fragile love between a daughter and the father she’s still learning to understand.

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Books newly added to the Black British Booklist

It may seem like the releases for October are a little thin on the ground, but there have been so many releases over the last few months that I am certain you wouldn’t have got through yet. Here are just some of the books added to the Black British Booklist this month. Let me know if you see something new! And don’t forget to bookmark the browser so that you have it available whenever you want to search for a new book.

Are You Still Watching? by Kelechi Okafor

Genre: Sci-Fi, Thriller

This high-concept speculative thriller is said to be perfect for fans of Black Mirror and Severance.

It’s 2032 and Dorcas has her whole life ahead of her – university, career, escape from her suffocating small town.

There’s only one problem: she has no idea who she wants to be.

Then something impossible happens. A being from another world brings a terrifying message: her entire life is a reality show broadcast across the galaxy and she’s bombing. The audience is bored. Unless she does something extraordinary – anything – she’ll be cancelled.

Permanently.

Now Dorcas has one chance to figure out what makes a life worth living before her time runs out.

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Fall From Grace by Leye Adenle

Genre: Crime and Thriller

Bobby Fatokun is no stranger to conspiracies. A former police officer turned ‘Bad Coach’, he now reforms corrupt officers within the Met. But when a client requests an urgent meet and then turns up dead, Bobby suspects there’s more to the story than an accidental death.

Bobby’s investigation leads him to a church where the victim had been working undercover, but he isn’t the only one asking questions …

The church’s wealthy pastor has a powerful enemy at the heart of the British Establishment – one who will stop at nothing to neutralise a threat. As the pieces of their dangerous gambit fall into place, Bobby will have to tread lightly, or his search for the truth will turn deadly.

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Reputation by Amanda Coreishy

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

In early noughties Trinidad, Asiyah, a young Muslim woman, embarks on a clandestine relationship with Cisco, her older, irreligious landlord. Defying her family’s warnings and expectations, she realigns her spiritual compass to be with her lover. But when her reputation is threatened by a stranger with a vendetta, and her affair becomes a difficult entanglement to escape, Asiyah must face a make-or-break reckoning to reclaim what is hers. Reputation came out at the end of August.

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Where the Shadows End by Louisa Bello

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Published earlier this year, Where the Shadows End is a debut about Sam, a 45-year-old Londoner of dual heritage, who has lived his life accompanied by voices no one else can hear. Chief among them is the taunting echo of a childhood bully who refuses to let Sam forget the guilt he carries over his mother’s death.

When his elusive, dream-like girlfriend, known only as Boat Woman, disappears without warning, Sam’s fragile world begins to unravel, and he becomes convinced that only his death can protect those he loves.

As the past and present collide in Sam’s fractured mind, he is drawn into a labyrinth of memory and revelation that challenges everything he thought he knew. But the voices that haunt him may yet become his guides, if he can only find the courage to listen.

Luminous, unsettling and tender, Where the Shadows End is a powerful meditation on self-acceptance, the nature of guilt and the need to belong.

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Dear Diary: The Truth Behind the Mask

Genre: Contemporary Fiction, Short Stories

Dear Diary is a collection of short stories following the lives of three millennial Nigerian women as they navigate life and push back against societal expectations. A British Nigerian glamour model under public scrutiny… A perfectionist housewife who longs for a family… An American Nigerian woman redefining her life. They are cultural ‘underdogs’, and pioneers of modern womanhood.

Bold and profound, these stories reveal the rich inner world of women redefining their faith, identity, and self-worth.

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A Trace of Sun by Pam Williams

Genre: Literary Fiction

Described as courageous and full of hope, A Trace of Sun follows Raef, a boy left behind in Grenada when his mother, Cilla, follows her husband to England in search of a better life. When they are finally reunited seven years later, they are strangers – and the emotional impact of the separation leads to events that rip their family apart. As they try to move forward with their lives, his mother’s secret will make Raef question all he’s ever known of who he is.

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Made From This: Families Don’t Come with Manuals by Concia Alicia

Genre: Autobiographical fiction

Made From This is a novella by Concia Alicia, who is an elected political Councillor in Westminster. The novella is about the people who broke us and the people who broke them. It is about a twelve-year-old boy who raised five siblings and sealed himself up so thoroughly against loss that he spent the rest of his life losing things. It is about a woman who went to a dance at twenty-three and decided, with her whole mind open, to love a complicated man. It is about two daughters of the same absent father finding each other across a kitchen table in Montserrat. And it is about what we owe the children who are watching us, right now, learning the shape of love from what they see at close range.

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The Café at the End of the World by Helen Comerford

Genre: Cosy Fantasy, Romance

Lydie, the daughter of Death, a retired Rider of the Apocalypse, is obsessed with ‘cosy’; cosy books, cosy job in the family café, cosy low-drama life.

But then secretive, attractive, and above all annoying, Kai, bursts into the café in a flurry of autumn leaves, with secrets that threaten to change everything.

Big, un-cosy things are coming for Lydie whether she likes it or not, and working with Kai might be the only way to protect her town. Provided she doesn’t fall for him first …

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And two future releases to get excited about…

Afro Mythos by Adwoa Botchey and Solomon Adebiyi

Genre: Folklore

Expected UK publication: 15 Apr 2027

You may know this pair by their studio name Adeche Atelier because their visually stunning art and content have amassed a huge following online. Known for painting stunning art pieces simultaneously, the pair are also enchanting storytellers, and produce engaging and accessible content on African mythology, history, and traditions.

Their new book brings together 75 retold and illustrated stories ‘from the Maasai to Yoruba, Zulu to Hodou’. If you enjoy exploring myth and legend, this is unmissable.

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Lostlands by Danielle Jawando

Genre: Fantasy, Middle Grade

Expected UK publication: 1 July 2027

This one isn’t arriving until summer of next year, but it’s never too early to get a book on your radar.

Lostlands is a new venture for award-winning author Danielle Jawando, whose YA novel When Our Worlds Collided won the 2023 Jhalek Prize for fiction. On her Instagram page, she said that this is ‘the story of my heart’ and that the idea for this tale was conceived long before her debut was published. It sounds very special to me!

The story follows twelve-year-old Ayo and his brother, Deji, who have spent their whole lives in foster care. That is until Deji disappears. On the night of the anniversary of Deji’s disappearance, a strange voice offers Ayo the chance to reunite with Deji.

In order to save his brother and himself, Ayo must journey across Shadowland which is part of the magical Lostlands – a place powered by the imagination of forgotten Black boys and s place from where none have ever returned.

Expect to find a blend of Greek and Nigerian mythology in this adventure, as well as a celebration of friendship and the power of the imagination. For lovers of Percy Jackson, Peter Pan and Amari and the Night Brothers.

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Find your next read on the Black British Booklist

All of these books can now be found through the Black British Booklist, alongside hundreds of books by Black British and mixed-race Black British authors.

You can search by author or title, browse the full collection, or use the new filters to narrow the database according to what you want to read.

If you know of a Black British authored book that you think should be included, you can also submit it for consideration.

Explore the Black British Booklist here.

And if you would like more posts like this, make sure you subscribe to The Abundant Word. I’ll be using these Black British Booklist news posts to share new releases, newly discovered backlist books and improvements to the database as it continues to grow.

Until the next update, happy reading, Wordies!

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