African American Women Writers

A history of the publishing outlets and efforts of early Black American writers writing in the 1920s or before; focuses on how resourceful Black writers had to be in order to get their works to the reading public before more substantial and self-sustaining publishing outlets were established.

A peak period in African-American literary activity sometimes called the Harlem Renaissance or New Negro era, and lasting from about 1915 to the early 30s. During this time, African-American artists and writers from cities all around the U.S. flocked to Harlem and began a decade of striving to change popular perceptions of their people. As Trudier Harris describes the writers of this period in the volumes foreword: They sought...to change racist attitudes but to preserve African heritage, to diminish isolation between races but to nurture distinctive racial characteristics.

Essays on Black American writers, both major and minor are presented, including poets, dramatists and playwrights. Many of these prominent Black writers, whose works are taught and written about today, came to the forefront of the American literary scene during this period. The essays in this volume try to capture the nuances of the lives and literature of that period.

The mid-1950s brought changes not only to the political and social worlds of African-Americans in the United States, but to their literary world as well-changes reflected in and effected by writers profiled in this volume. Much of the impetus for the surge in Black creativity after 1955 came from the 1954 Supreme Court decision abolishing separate but equal education. Black writers were caught up in the growing civil rights and nationalist movements. These movements inspired less traditional African-American literary forms, such as science fiction and children's fiction, less emphasis on religion in writing, and the emergence of more published women writers. Subject matter changed also, as these writers focused less on Black/white conflicts and more on the Black family and community.

In African-American literary history, one of the most striking phenomena has been the tremendous outpouring of poetry since the mid-1950s. Since the first successful boycotts of the Civil Rights movement, young Black writers were in the forefront of political activism and social commitment. Poetry became the genre that could immediately connect the familiar oral tradition, including spirituals and sermons of the Black church, with both the dynamic sociopolitical activity of the day and the written literary heritage of Black people. The new African-American poets aroused feelings of nationalism in Black people throughout the United States, encouraging viewpoints of black pride and Black is beautiful.

Since the mid-1950s, drama has emerged as a major genre for African-Americans writers. The flood of creative outpourings in the 1960s that led to the Black Arts movement brought in its wake a new generation of dramatists who provided some of the most influential voices in American literature. The early 1960s introduced new dramatic forms to larger audiences Just as African-American dramatists were interested in creating a theater in their own image, prose writers were interested in literary creations relevant to African-Americans. During this time, autobiography and biography became increasingly important as modes for expressing this history.