The Urban Book Source. © 2005 - 2013 by The Urban Book Source, LLC. QBR.com | The Black Book Review Online. Urban Reviews. RAWSISTAZ Literary Group. It's A Black Thang.com. Black Expressions® Book Club. Street Fiction. AALBC.com Best Sellers. Books of Soul | Bestselling African American Books at Amazon.com. Urban Fiction/Street Lit/Hip Hop Fiction Resources for Librarians. Urban Fiction Also called "street lit", "hip hop fiction", or "ghetto lit", African-American urban fiction is a popular genre in public libraries, especially with teens and 20-something patrons. It isn't new -- Iceberg Slim and Donald Goines are two authors who wrote urban pulp fiction during the 1970s -- but there seems to be a renewed interest, perhaps sparked by the popularity of Sister Souljah's "The Coldest Winter Ever". Many of the titles are self-published or offered by small publishers, so it may be difficult to find professional reviews.
Street Lit, as opposed to African-American fiction in general, usually features characters living in inner-city enclaves and involved in drug dealing, gang violence, and/or prostitution for the purposes of street survival or as a misguided means of gaining wealth to move out of the ghetto. Book Lists Urban Teen Fiction [4] Publishers/Popular Titles/Authors Simon and Schuster's Atria/Strebor Books Atria/Strebor St. Social Media Bestseller Lists.