100 Most Popular African American Authors: Biographical Sketches and Bibliographies (Popular Authors Series)

373 Pages·2006·2.79 MB·English

by  Bernard A. Drew

100 Most Popular African
American Authors:
Biographical Sketches and
Bibliographies
Bernard A. Drew
LIBRARIES UNLIMITED
100 Most Pop u lar Af ri can Amer i can Au thors
Re cent Ti tles in the Pop u lar Au thors Se ries
The 100 Most Popu lar Young Adult Aut hors: Biog raphi c al Sketches and Bibl io g rap hies,
Rev ised First Edit ion
Bern ard A. Drew
Pop u lar Non fic tion Au thors for Chil dren: A Bio graph i cal and The matic Guide
Flora R. Wyatt, Marg ar et Coggins, and Jane Hunter Imber
100 Most Pop u lar Chil dren’s Au thors: Bio graph i cal Sketches and Bib li og ra phies
Sharron McElmeel
100 Most Pop u lar Pic ture Book Au thors and Il lus tra tors: Bio graph i cal Sketches and
Bib li og ra phies
Sharron McElmeel
100 More Pop u lar Young Adult Au thors: Bio graph i cal Sketches and Bib li og ra phies
Bern ard A. Drew
Winn ing Aut hors: Prof iles of the Newbery Med ali sts
Kathleen L. Bostrom
Child ren’s Aut hors and Ill ust rat ors Too Good to Miss: Biog raphi c al Sketches and
Bib li og ra phies
Sharron McElmeel
100 Most Pop u lar Genre Fic tion Au thors: Bio graph i cal Sketches and Bib li og ra phies
Bern ard A. Drew
100 Most Pop u lar
Af ri can American Au thors
Bio graph i cal Sketches and Bib li og ra phies
Bern ard A. Drew
Popu l ar Aut hors Ser ies
Westport, Conn ecti c ut • Lond on
Li brary of Con gress Cat a log ing-in-Pub li ca tion Data
Drew, Bern ard A. (Bern ard Alger), 1950–
100 most popu l ar Afr ic an Ameri c an aut hors : biog raphi c al sketches and bibl io gr ap hies /
by Bern ard A. Drew.
p. cm. — (Popu l ar aut hors ser ies)
Inc ludes bibl iog raphi c al refe re nces and ind ex.
ISBN 1-59158-322-5 (pbk : alk. pap er)
1. Amer i can lit er a ture—Af ri can Amer i can au thors—Bio-bib li og ra phy—Dic tio nar ies.
2. Amer i can lit er a ture—20th cen tury—Bio-bib li og ra phy—Dic tio nar ies. 3. Af ri can
Amer i can au thors—Bi og ra phy—Dic tio nar ies. I. Ti tle. II. Ti tle: One hun dred most pop u lar
Af ri can Amer i can au thors.
PS153.N5D74 2007
810.9’896073003—dc22 2006030669
Brit ish Li brary Cat a logu ing in Pub li ca tion Data is avail able.
Copyr ight © 2007 by Bern ard A. Drew
All rights res erved. No port ion of this book may be
rep rod uced, by any proc ess or techn ique, witho ut the
exp ress writt en cons ent of the publ isher.
Lib rary of Cong ress Cata l og Card Numb er: 2006030669
ISBN: 1-59158-322-5
First publ ished in 2007
Lib rari es Unl imi ted, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881
A Memb er of the Greenw ood Publ ishi ng Group, Inc.
www.lu.com
Printed in the United States of Amer ica
The pa per used in this book com plies with the
Perm an ent Pa per Stand ard is sued by the Nat ional
In for ma tion Stan dards Or ga ni za tion (Z39.48–1984).
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Con tents
CCoonn tteennttss
Int rod uct ion...........................................ix
Ro chelle Alers .............................................1
Maya Angelou .............................................5
Tina McElroy Ansa .........................................9
James Baldwin ............................................12
Toni Cade Bambara ........................................16
Leslie Esdaile Banks........................................19
Ste ven Barnes.............................................23
Angela Benson............................................27
El ea nor Tay lor Bland.......................................30
Arna Bontemps............................................33
Michele Andrea Bowen .....................................37
Dionne Brand.............................................39
Con nie Briscoe............................................43
Anita Rich mond Bunkley....................................46
Octavia E. Butl er ..........................................49
Bebe Moore Campb ell ......................................52
Char lotte Carter ...........................................56
Lorene Cary ..............................................58
Barbara Chase-Riboud ......................................61
Aus tin Clarke .............................................64
Pearl Cleage ..............................................67
J. Cali f orn ia Coop er........................................71
Edwidge Danticat..........................................74
Sam uel R. Delany..........................................77
Nora DeLoach ............................................82
Eric Jerome Dickey ........................................84
Rita Dove ................................................87
Sharon Mills Draper........................................91
Tananarive Due ...........................................94
Dav id Ant hony Durh am.....................................98
Grace F. Ed wards.........................................100
Percival Everett ..........................................102
Aisha Ford ..............................................106
Gwynne Forster ..........................................109
Sharon Ewell Fost er.......................................112
Er nest J. Gaines ..........................................115
Dona ld Goines ...........................................118
Alex Haley ..............................................121
Pa tri cia Haley............................................125
v
vi Con tents
Vir ginia Ham il ton.........................................127
Lorraine Hansberry........................................131
Gary Hardwick...........................................135
E. Lynn Harr is ...........................................138
Gar Ant hony Haywood.....................................141
Donna Hill ..............................................144
Ches ter Himes............................................148
Hugh Holton Jr. ..........................................152
Nalo Hopkinson ..........................................155
Langston Hughes .........................................159
Zora Neale Hurston .......................................165
Ice berg Slim .............................................169
Brenda Jack son...........................................172
Beverly Jenkins ..........................................176
Yolanda Joe .............................................179
Angela Johns on ..........................................182
Gayl Jones ..............................................186
Ja maica Kincaid ..........................................189
San dra Kitt ..............................................192
Jul ius Lester..................................................196
Paule Mar shall................................................200
Felicia Ma son............................................203
James McBride...........................................206
James McEachin..........................................209
Bernice L. McFadden......................................211
Aaron McGruder .........................................214
Di ane McKinney-Whet stone ................................217
Terry McMillan ..........................................220
Mary Monr oe.................................................225
Toni Mor ri son............................................227
Wal ter Mosley ...........................................231
Wal ter Dean Myers........................................236
Glo ria Naylor ............................................242
Barbara Neely............................................246
Evelyn Palfrey ...........................................249
Alexs D. Pate ............................................251
Gary Phillips.............................................254
Con nie Por ter ............................................258
Jeffrey A. Poston .........................................261
Fran cis Ray..............................................263
Ishmael Reed ............................................266
John Ridley..............................................270
Kimberla Law son Roby ....................................273
Sis ter Souljah ............................................276
Eboni Snoe..............................................279
Vickie M. Stringer ........................................282
Mild red D. Tayl or.........................................284
Omar Tyree..............................................287
Con tents vii
Al ice Walker.............................................291
Carl Weber..............................................295
Valerie Wils on Wesl ey.....................................298
Chassie L. West ..........................................301
John Edg ar Wideman......................................305
John A. Wil liams .........................................308
Paula L. Woods ..........................................312
Jac que line Woodson.......................................315
Al ice Wootson ...........................................319
Courtni Wright...........................................321
Rich ard Wright...........................................324
Frank Yerby .............................................327
Zane ...................................................331
Au thor/Ti tle In dex ........................................335
Genre Ind ex .............................................361

In tro duc tion
IINn tTroR dOuDc tUioCnTION
Af ri can Amer i can fic tion writ ers have achieved so much in the past de cade and a
half. Alt hough never abs ent from the lite ra ry scene, now more than ever you will find
on book store and lib rary shelves a spect rum of black writ ers who exc el in all genr es,
from ro mance to mys tery, sci ence fic tion to his tor i cal, in spi ra tional to ur ban, po etry
and memo ir to mains tream cont emp or ary. They are wildly proc laimi ng their strong
voices and rich voc abu lari es and have barely tapped their reserves of stor ies, themes,
and characters.
Black aut hors have succ eeded not only in all genr es but in all lite ra ry leve ls
within genr es—from rough-grammared, vio lent street tales to poli shed, stell ar-
vocabularied lite ra ry nove ls. From Iceberg Slim to Edwidge Danticat, this refe re nce
book stresses “popu l ar” aut hors. Sel ect ions were made with caref ul weight to genr es
and to au thors within those genr es. They are feat ured in harm ony tog ether in the same
refe re nce book bec ause at heart they all have adored the writt en word, the power of
comm un ic at ion, the op port un ity to cry into the wilderness—and at last to be heard.
100 Most Pop u lar Af ri can Amer i can Au thors, the late st vol ume in Lib rari es Un-
lim ited’s Pop u lar Au thors se ries, car ries brief bio graph i cal sketches of each writer
with pers onal inf orm at ion, criti c al views from pub lished sources, des cript ions of writ-
ings, and pert in ent comm ents from the aut hors about their craft. Prof iles are based on a
va ri ety of sources, from ex ist ing ref er ence works to trade and pop u lar pe ri od i cals to
aut hor Web sites. The lists of au thor works are as curr ent as poss ib le at press time. Bib-
lio g rap hies and furt her sources of inf orm at ion round out the ent ries. Se lected and doc-
u mented quo ta tions within pro files give read ers—es pe cially stu dents—a fla vor for
what they might find should they wish to exp lore a part icu l ar aut hor furt her. The
sketches are ar ranged al pha bet i cally by au thor name. The genre or gen res that each au -
thors writes in, along with a benchmark title, are listed at the beginning of each profile.
The work conc ent rates on 100 aut hors who have made their mark in the past quar-
ter cent ury. It stresses popu lar fict ion write rs (some also write poe try and mem oirs,
one crafts a newsp ap er comic strip), dur ab ili ty, and U.S. orie nt at ion (with a sprink ling
of Ca nad ian and Car ibb ean au thors) in all genr es. There are many, many “ris ing stars.”
Most of the writ ers cov ered are still ac tive and are at or near ing the best of their ca reers.
Partly in an att empt to show how many of these aut hors found their ins pir at ion, a num-
ber of ear lier, sem i nal pop u lar fic tion writ ers are in cluded, such as Zora Neale
Hurston, Alex Haley, Chest er Himes, and Langston Hughes. Yes, some class ic writ ers
are omitt ed, to make way for this generation’s scribes.
And this gen er a tion has pro duced some in no va tive and in flu en tial writ ers—to of-
fer only a few shin ing exa mp les: Terry McMillan, Walt er Moseley, Maya Angelou,
Tananarive Due, and John Edgar Wideman.
It’s lit tle surp rise that Af ri can Amer i can write rs face more than the usual mar ket
chal lenges of findi ng first a publ isher and then an aud ie nce. They lack the depth of the
same writt en lit era ry trad i tion that white writ ers enj oy. They were dis placed by slav -
ery. They’ve had to rely on the Afr ic an oral trad it ion to bridge the gap of the dia sp ora.
Two words freq uently emerge as these aut hors rel ate their upbringings and att ract ion
ix