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Nov 30, 2018 · Some of them have even come to the attention of the literary establishment. Here follows a woefully incomplete roll call: Gregory Pardlo, Pulitzer, 2015. Colson Whitehead, National Book Award,...
- Maya Angelou. Acclaimed American poet, author and activist Maya Angelou was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1928. Often referred to as a spokesman for African Americans and women through her many works, her gift of words connected all people who were “committed to raising the moral standards of living in the United States.”
- James Baldwin. Though he spent most of his life living abroad to escape the racial prejudice in the United States, James Baldwin is the quintessential American writer.
- Amiri Baraka. Born in 1934, poet, writer and political activist Amiri Baraka used his writing as a weapon against racism and became one of the most widely published African American writers.
- Octavia Butler. In a genre known for being traditionally white and male, Octavia Butler broke new ground in science fiction as an African American woman.
Mar 6, 2018 · I am sharing with you some of my favorite black male authors in the literary world. A shout out to each author bae for sharing their talents from a man’s point of view. The list consists of new authors and oldies but also goodies.
- Overview
- Colson Whitehead
- Jacqueline Woodson
- James McBride
- Jesmyn Ward
- Kevin Young
- Ta-Nehisi Coates
- Kiese Laymon
- Roxane Gay
- Marlon James
Some of the most exciting and prominent authors of the 21st century are also essential contributors to the impressive canon of African American literature. The authors in this list have published award-winning works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Whether you’re a fan of science fiction or searing memoir, these famous Black writers have somethi...
The first writer to win a Pulitzer Prize for consecutive books, Whitehead is known for blending history and fantasy in his novels. His first Pulitzer was for The Underground Railroad (2016), which tells the story of a young woman who escapes slavery by following the tracks of a railroad located underground—a literal reimagining of the real Undergro...
The author of more than 40 books for children, teens, and adults, Woodson won a National Book Award in 2014 for her memoir Brown Girl Dreaming. Written in verse, the book details her life growing up in South Carolina and New York City in the 1960s and ’70s. In 2020 Woodson won the Hans Christian Andersen Award, an international prize for lifetime a...
An accomplished jazz musician and a journalist, McBride became a best-selling author with his first book, The Color of Water (1996), a memoir of his white, Jewish mother. McBride went on to win a National Book Award for his novel The Good Lord Bird (2013), which tells the story of an enslaved boy who joins the crusade of abolitionist John Brown. In...
Ward made history in 2017 when she won her second National Book Award for the novel Sing, Unburied, Sing, making her the first woman and the first Black American author to win the award twice in the fiction category. Her first win was for Salvage the Bones (2011), the story of a pregnant teenage girl living in coastal Mississippi with her father an...
Young’s impressive résumé includes serving as poetry editor for The New Yorker and director of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. Young has published numerous collections of poetry. His book Ardency: A Chronicle of the Amistad Rebels (2011) is a “part libretto” and “part captivity epistle” that tells the story of the Africans who rebelled on the slave ship Amistad in 1839. Young has also published nonfiction, including Bunk: The Rise of Hoaxes, Humbug, Plagiarists, Phonies, Post-Facts, and Fake News (2017). The book offers a fascinating history of American hoaxes, giving particular attention to the role that race and gender have played in American fakery.
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As a blogger and journalist for The Atlantic magazine and website in the late 2000s, Coates wrote provocative articles on pop culture and politics. He won awards for his probing articles on topics such as U.S. Pres. Barack Obama’s impact as the country’s first Black president and reparations to African Americans for slavery. His searing memoir Betw...
Mississippi-born Laymon has published essays, fiction, and memoir, most notably his raw, fiercely honest Carnegie Medal-winning book Heavy: An American Memoir (2018). Heavy is written in the form of a letter to Laymon’s mother, with whom he had a turbulent relationship. The book also documents his struggles with eating disorders and gambling addict...
Gay became a literary superstar in 2014 with her best-selling collection of essays, Bad Feminist. The collection explores Gay’s self-professed love for many songs, books, movies, and TV shows that contradict some interpretations of feminist principles. Gay’s other celebrated works include the novel An Untamed State (2014) and Hunger: A Memoir of (M...
In 2015 James became the first writer from Jamaica to win Britain’s prestigious Man Booker Prize. He won for his novel A Brief History of Seven Killings (2014), which tells a fictionalized account of the attempted murder of reggae legend Bob Marley in 1976. Winning the Booker was a major career triumph for James, whose first novel, John Crow’s Devi...
- Reedsy
- The Sellout by Paul Beatty. Buy on Amazon. In The Sellout, Paul Beatty introduces us to a young, Black watermelon-and-weed grower, named Me. When Me’s father is gunned down by police, and his hometown Dickens is erased from the map, he decides to face one injustice by burying it beneath another.
- The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin. Buy on Amazon. Jemisin’s unmissable, triple Hugo-Award-winning trilogy, The Broken Earth, takes place in the Stillness — a world in which society is structured around surviving nuclear winters.
- Beloved by Toni Morrison. Buy on Amazon. The seminal work from a giant of modern literature, Beloved chronicles the experiences of Sethe, an ex-slave living with her daughter in a house haunted by secrets.
- Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. Buy on Amazon. Originally published in 1937, Their Eyes Were Watching God was out of print for nearly 30 years, due to its readers’ initial rejection of its strong, Black, female protagonist.
Feb 2, 2022 · Rachel Cavanaugh. February 2, 2022. Bettmann // Getty Images. Publish this story. 50 Black writers whose impact went beyond the page. Throughout America's history, African American authors have represented a rich and diverse body of literature.
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This is a list of Black American authors and writers, all of whom are considered part of African-American literature, and who already have Wikipedia articles. The list also includes non-American authors resident in the US and American writers of African descent. Contents:
