By Nava Atlas | On March 13, 2018 | Updated November 2, 2024 | Comments (0)
Phillis Wheatley (ca 1753 – December 5, 1784), born in Senegal/Gambia, Africa, was one of the first women to be published in colonial America. She was also the first person in the U.S. to have a book of poetry published while enslaved.
Phillis was kidnapped as part of the slave trade as a young child and brought to North America, where she arrived on July 11, 1761. She arrived on a schooner, The Phillis, undoubtedly the source of her name.
Later, she was described as “a slender, frail female child, supposed to have been about seven years old at the time, from the circumstances of shedding her front teeth.” Read More→
By Nava Atlas | On March 13, 2018 | Updated October 20, 2025 | Comments (4)
Mary McCarthy (June 21, 1912 – October 25, 1989) was an American novelist, political activist, and critic. Born in Seattle, Washington, she endured a difficult childhood but overcame it to become a woman of strength and determination.
She began her writing career as a critic and gained admiration for her honest observations on culture and politics. In 1942 she published her first novel, The Company She Keeps, about a young woman’s college education, and subsequent foray into New York City social circles.
The Group (1963) was her most commercially successful novel — it sat on the New York Times bestseller list for two years and was made into a film that was more popular with audiences than critics. Read More→
By Nava Atlas | On March 13, 2018 | Updated August 25, 2022 | Comments (0)
Dorothy West (June 2, 1907 – August 16, 1998) was an American author and editor associated with the Harlem Renaissance. Born in Boston, she started writing as a child and began receiving accolades and awards while still in her teens.
Her writing is admired for its nuanced views of middle and upper middle-class African-American communities and how it comments on gender, class, and social structure through storytelling. Read More→
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