By Nava Atlas | On March 1, 2018 | Updated August 28, 2025 | Comments (0)
Sarah Orne Jewett (September 3, 1849 – June 24, 1909) was American author whose works embodied her love for the natural surroundings of her native South Berwick, Maine.
The coastal community served as the fictionalized setting for most of her novels and short stories.
The Country of the Pointed Firs (1896) is considered Jewett’s masterpiece, and as a whole, her work is credited for helping to popularize the genre of regionalism in fiction. Her work also displays a deep compassion for women, respecting their hopes and ambitions in an era that wasn’t always conducive to their realization. Read More→
By Nava Atlas | On March 1, 2018 | Updated February 16, 2026 | Comments (0)
Jessie Redmon Fauset (April 27, 1882 – April 30, 1961) was an American editor, poet, essayist, and novelist who was deeply involved with the Harlem Renaissance literary movement.
Jessie Fauset was known as one of the “midwives” of the movement, as someone who encouraged and supported other talents. She was especially noted for her work as an editor of The Crisis, NAACP’s journal, in the Harlem Renaissance era. In that capacity, she discovered and nurtured several major Black literary figures.
She also wrote four well-regarded novels and numerous short stories and essays; she was an accomplished poet as well.
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By Nava Atlas | On March 1, 2018 | Updated March 5, 2026 | Comments (0)
Gwendolyn Brooks (June 7, 1917 – December 3, 2000) was a highly awarded American poet whose works included sonnets and ballads as well as blues rhythm in free verse. She also created lyrical poems, some of which were book-length.
Arguably her most famous poem is the brief, much-anthologized “We Real Cool,” but it would be sad to stop with this brief but memorable poem — her career as a working poet was rich and varied.
Though her work reflected urban Black life, its underlying themes were universal to the human experience. Gwendolyn Brooks’ lifetime output encompassed more than twenty books, including children’s books. Read More→
By Nava Atlas | On February 28, 2018 | Updated March 17, 2023 | Comments (2)
Pearl S. Buck (June 26, 1892 – March 6, 1973), was an American author of fiction and nonfiction, as well as a humanitarian and human rights advocate. She was the first American woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Born Pearl Sydenstricker in Hillsboro, West Virginia, she was the daughter of Southern Presbyterian missionaries. Her parents had spent much of their years of marriage, from about 1880 on, in China.
They returned to the U.S. shortly before Pearl was born, then, when she was just five months old returned to China, settling in Zhenjiang, a town near Nanking. Read More→
By Nava Atlas | On February 27, 2018 | Updated September 9, 2025 | Comments (0)
Simone de Beauvoir (January 9, 1908 – April 14, 1986), born Simone-Lucie-Ernestine-Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir, was a French author, existential philosopher, political activist, feminist, and social theorist. Her most enduring work is The Second Sex (1949).
Born in Paris, de Beauvoir was deeply religious in her youth. She intended to become a nun until a crisis of faith at age fourteen resulted in her becoming an atheist. This remained central to her philosophy for the rest of her life.
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