Margaret Walker (1915 – 1998) is best known for her acclaimed novel, Jubilee (1966) as well as her richly evocative poetry. Here we’ll explore a sampling of poems by Margaret Walker, works that speak powerfully to the African-American experience.
Born in Birmingham, Alabama, Walker grew up in New Orleans and eventually settled in Chicago, where she earned a Bachelor’s degree in 1935. Growing up, she was particularly taken with the poetry of Langston Hughes.
In 1936, Walker joined the Federal Writers’ Project and the South Side Writers Group, where she became friends with fellow writer and poet, Richard Wright. In 1940, she earned a master’s degree in creative writing from the University of Iowa. She and Wright both participated in the movement called The Chicago Black Renaissance. Read More→
Lucille Clifton (1936 – 2010) was a poet, teacher, and children’s book author whose life and career began in western New York. Here is a selection of 10 poems by Lucille Clifton, a small sampling of her prolific output.
Clifton’s widely respected poetry focuses on social issues, the Black American experience, and female identity. Her poetry has been praised for its wisdom and use of strong imagery; the way she constructed her poems’ lines even give meaning to the spacing of words.
Her poetry is recognizable for its purposeful lack of punctuation and capitalization. Read More→
Lucille Clifton (June 26, 1936 – February 13, 2010) was a prolific American poet, teacher, and children’s book author.
Clifton’s work focused on issues of race, family affairs, and gender through the lens of the Black American experience. She also created works about women’s issues, everyday family struggles, and health. Her work has been described as feminist.
Clifton’s poetry was first published by Langston Hughes, who included it in his impactful anthology, The Poetry of the Negro (1746-1970). Read More→
The Edwardians by Vita Sackville-West, published in 1930, is a novel that critiques the aristocracy of the early 20th century. The work was very much a reflection of the world that Vita grew up in.
As the only child of the aristocratic Victoria and Lionel Edward Sackville-West, a Baron, she had all the duties of a male heir, yet as a female, she wasn’t able to inherit Knole, the castle in which the small family lived.
In The Edwardians, the country estate of Knole castle becomes the fictional Chevron. Within the fictional framework, Vita reproduces in exquisite detail its physical features. Read More→
Lorraine Hansberry (1930 – 1965) was an American playwright and author best known for A Raisin in the Sun, a 1959 play influenced by her background and upbringing in Chicago. The fascinating facts about Lorraine Hansberry following illustrate her development as a Black woman, activist, and writer.
Though A Raisin in the Sun is the crown jewel in Hansberry’s legacy, she was also known for the plays The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window and Les Blancs.
To Be Young, Gifted and Black was a posthumously produced play and collection of writings that capped a brief and brilliant career. When she died of pancreatic cancer in 1965, she was only thirty-four years old. Read More→
By the time of Zora Neale Hurston’s death, most of her considerable body of work was out of print, rarely read or studied. Here we’ll explore how Alice Walker rediscovered Zora Neale Hurston and revived her literary legacy.
Zora Neale Hurston (1891 – 1960) had a dual career as an anthropologist and writer, incorporating regional and cultural realism in her short stories, folklore collections, and novels.
Alice Walker (1944 – ) is an activist, novelist, short story writer, and poet best known for the 1982 novel The Color Purple. Some of her views and alliances are controversial, yet if there is one good deed she has done, it has been to return Zora to her rightful place in the world of literature.
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Elizabeth Taylor (1912 – 1975) knew from a young age that she wanted to be a novelist — to be clear, this isn’t in reference to the renowned actress, but to the prolific British author. In the following selection of quotes from Elizabeth Taylor’s fiction, we get a glimpse of her literary gifts.
Her first novel, At Mrs Lippincote’s, was published in 1945. Here, Roddy, an RAF officer has been stationed in a small town in southern England and, now, his wife and son and cousin have joined him in what used to be Mrs Lippincote’s house. Mr and Mrs Lippincote have died, but the Davenant family is building a life together. Read More→
“The Garden Party” by Katherine Mansfield is a widely anthologized short story by the New Zealand-born master of this form of fiction. It was first published as the lead story in the collection The Garden Party and Other Stories (1922).
Warren S. Walker wrote in an essay on the story: ‘The most frequently anthologized of Katherine Mansfield’s works, ‘The Garden Party’ has long enjoyed a reputation for near-perfection in the art of the short story.’ In her time, Mansfield was seen as one of the prime innovators of the short story form.” Read More→
