Black Cherokee: A Novel

Queenie meets Frying Plantain in this courageous coming-of-age story, set in the 1990s, about a mixed-race Black girl fighting for recognition in a South Carolina Cherokee community that refuses to accept her ancestry as legitimate.

On the rain-swollen banks of the River Etsi in South Carolina, Ophelia Blue Rivers—six years old in 1992—catches frogs and stretches to reach the swaying sunflowers. She’s an orphan raised in a rustic cabin by her Grandma Blue, a descendent of the Black Cherokee Freedmen. Caught in deep currents of history that she doesn’t understand, she is, as her grandma says: “half Black, half Cherokee, and all mixed up.”

While Ophelia may not always understand where she came from, there’s no mistaking where she’d rather be: caught in the warmth of Grandma Blue’s cabin, listening to bedtime Cherokee legends as collard greens hiss in the frying pan.

But one day, a tall stranger with a black denim jacket and a charming smile appears, and his arrival shatters Ophelia’s world. She finds herself whisked away from all she knows to live with her Auntie Oba, the boisterous woman she had only met in rumours.

So begins Ophelia’s spirited, at times harrowing, search for home and family—a journey that takes her from a majority-white high school to the inner sanctum of a Black evangelical church to the throbbing dance floors of underground Southern clubs and to a final, devastating encounter with the scion of a wealthy, white family. She must ask herself: What does it mean to belong when the terms of that belonging come at such a high price?

With dazzling language, keen insight, and an unforgettable voice, Black Cherokee is not only an astonishing novel but a profound meditation on race, identity, and coming of age from a major literary talent.

Antonio Michael Downing is the author of the acclaimed memoir Saga Boy and children’s book, Stars in My Crown. Antonio Michael is the current host of the CBC Radio program The Next Chapter where he discusses books with authors and columnists. He spends his time writing books, singing songs, and trying to make his grandma proud. Black Cherokee is his debut novel. 

ISBN: 9781668024553
Format: Paperback
Pages: 272
Publisher: Scribner Canada
Published: August 19, 2025

“Downing’s prose is both lyrical and controlled and weaves together a story that is, at once expansive and intimate, expertly blending the personal with the sweeping nature of the historical. A true and passionate storyteller.”
— ZALIKA REID-BENTA, bestselling author of River Mumma“Black Cherokee flows like a river: steady, urgent, steadfast. With glowing prose, Downing offers an unapologetic look at identity, family, and memory. With unforgettable characters, Downing captures something deeply timely and timeless all at once.”
— CHELENE KNIGHT, award-winning author of Junie“A courageous story with Toni Morrison vibes featuring five queens and countless devils. Written in prose as sharp as diamonds, it explores hollow dreams—like melons hollowed of their heart—and the shells we grow to protect ourselves. Like a mother’s arms, the shells of its characters toughen to hold what they cherish, only to be shed when they summon the strength to break free. Bold, uplifting, and moving, this fresh take rushes toward its truths.”
— YASUKO THANH, award-winning author of To the Bridge “Antonio Michael Downing's Black Cherokee is a tethered tale of belonging and becoming that is nearly impossible to put down. Ophelia's story weaves together race, class, and gender in a way that reflects our contemporary culture while being simultaneously reminiscent of our past histories. Downing's poetic prose is mesmerizing. He takes us across counties and through communities with this story about land, love and a longing for true freedom. Black Cherokee is a journey I'm glad to have travelled on.”
— MATTHEW R. MORRIS, bestselling author of Black Boys Like Me: Confrontations with Race, Gender, and Belonging Praise for Saga Boy: My Life of Blackness and Becoming “Downing transports readers to the steamy, scented jungle of Trinidad where he lived with his grandmother as a child. . . A story of resilience and character, Saga Boy is bound to become a Canadian classic.”
— CATHERINE GILDINER, author of Good Morning, Monster and Too Close to the Falls“Downing seamlessly blends poetic images, music, and storytelling to create a poignant and stunningly honest memoir of a young man’s adamant determination to navigate his position and find himself despite the boundaries of colonialism, racism, and the endless sense of disbelonging.”
— LAMEES AL ETHARI, author of Waiting for the Rain: An Iraqi Memoir and From the Wounded Banks of the Tigris“In Saga Boy, Downing offers expertise and experience, intellect and intimacy; this is a book that names the griefs and violences of colonialism and insists on the tentacular ways they reach into all facets of being…Truly unforgettable.”
— JENNY HEIJUN WILLS, author of Older Sister, Not Necessarily Related“Singularly dazzling, Saga Boy is a brilliant collage of the twenty-first century’s most incredible memoirs. Told with an unforgettable and innovative pace, this a book I will reread forever.”
— KIESE LAYMON, author of Heavy“Deeply moving . . . Suffused with poetic prose that jumps off the page, this inspiring account sings.”
— Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)