Thursday, March 22, 2012

WOMEN HISTORY MONTH: CELEBRATION OF WOMEN WRITERS




African American women have for hundreds of years shouldered the brunt of being a double minority, having to overcome the prejudice against both their sex and their race. That they have attained the level of achievement that they have today is both a wonder and a miracle.


Black women writers have been the authors of some of the earliest African American writings. Phillis Wheatley was the first published African American woman poet having published her book Poems on Various Subjects in 1773. Lucy Terry is the author of the oldest known piece of African-American literature: "Bars Fight". Although the poem was initially written in 1746, it was not published until 1855. Writers such as Angela Weld Grimke, Zora Neal Hurston and Nella Larsen all of the Harlem Renaissance followed the tradition of strong African American women writers, leading the way for the Gwendolyn Brooks, Lucille Clifton, Octavia Butler, Toni Cade Bambara, Mari Evans and others that came after.

Below find a list of women authors that carry on the tradition of African American letters-

Angelou, Maya

Bambara, Toni Cade

Brand, Dionne

Parker, Pat,

Lorde, Audre

Davis, Angela

Walker, Alice

Morrison, Toni

Naylor, Gloria

Guy, Rosa

McMillan, Terry

Golden, Marita

Dungy, Camille

Rankine, Claudia

Foster, Sharon Ewell

Berry, Deidre

Wesley, Valerie Wilson

Ray, Francis

McClain-Watson, Teresa

Cleage, Pearl

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