Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso and Brooklyn Borough Historian Asad Dandia released a list of 10 books exploring the communities, histories and identities that have shaped Brooklyn, with the selections featured prominently during this year’s Brooklyn Book Festival.
The 2026 Brooklyn Book List was released Sept. 25, ahead of the festival’s main Festival Day and Literary Marketplace on Sept. 27 at Brooklyn Borough Hall and surrounding venues. Despite rain causing the cancelation of the marketplace, book talks and festivities continued.
The list brings together fiction and nonfiction spanning different periods and perspectives on the borough.
“There has never been one singular Brooklyn—this borough is thousands of stories, woven into every block, every neighborhood, every small business and park and house of worship," said Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso. “I'm grateful to Borough Historian Asad Dandia for helping curate a list that captures Brooklyn in all its complexity.”
The selections include Betty Smith’s "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn," Thomas J. Campanella’s "Brooklyn: The Once and Future City," Prithi Kanakamedala’s "Brooklynites," Hugh Ryan’s "When Brooklyn Was Queer" and Xochitl Gonzalez’s "Last Night in Brooklyn," which is set in Fort Greene and explores a changing Brooklyn through the experience of its residents.
Other selections examine Black communities and the history of race in Brooklyn, Hasidic culture, Arab American experiences, gentrification and the development of Brownstone Brooklyn. Together, the books cover subjects including immigration, race, religion, sexuality, neighborhood change and cultural identity.
With the Brooklyn Book Festival now concluded, the 10-book list remains a snapshot of the borough’s literary and cultural landscape, bringing together works that examine Brooklyn from historical, social and fictional perspectives.
