Anne Spencer, born Annie Bethel Bannister (February 6, 1882 – July 27, 1975), was a poet, teacher, librarian, gardener, and civil rights activist. In this sampling of poems by Anne Spencer, we experience her affinity for nature, love, and life itself.
Anne Spencer was a prominent figure in the Harlem Renaissance. Her literary career began as she was a student in Virginia Seminary with her first poem, “The Skeptic.” After creating this poem, she continued to write on any surface she could find to record her thoughts, including the walls of her home and random scraps of paper.
This talented poet and gardener was an outspoken advocate for women’s rights, civil rights, and granting the right of respect to everyone.
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Hilda Doolittle (September 10, 1886 – September 27, 1961) was an American-born poet, novelist, translator, and essayist who wrote under the pen name H.D.
She was profoundly influenced by the effects of World War I, and the subsequent trends of modernism, psychoanalysis, and feminism.
Her work is often framed within the context of other important modernist writers such as T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, Marianne Moore, and William Carlos Williams. Today, she’s best remembered for her innovation and experimental approach to poetry. Read More→
Anne Spencer (born Annie Bethel Bannister; February 6, 1882 – July 27, 1975) was an American poet, teacher, librarian, gardener, and civil rights activist.
She’s best remembered as an important figure of the Harlem Renaissance and as the second African-American poet to be included in the Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry.
Anne was born in Henry County, Virginia, to Joel Cephus Bannister and Sarah Louise Scales. Both parents were part of the first generation of African Americans born into bondage whose childhood followed the end of slavery. As an only child, she was the center of her parents’ lives, and they were determined to make a better life for her.
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Zora Neale Hurston (1891 – 1960), the African-American author and anthropologist, was a natural storyteller. Presented here is a survey of books by Zora Neale Hurston — her novels, folklore collections, and essays.
Zora’s love of story resulted in an array of novels and short stories as well as compilations gathered from oral traditions of the Black cultures of the American South and the Caribbean.
Zora made a name for herself during the Harlem Renaissance movement of the 1920s, when she began producing novels, short stories, plays, essays, and a modest output of poetry. Upon graduating from Barnard College in 1928, she embarked on a parallel career as an anthropologist. Read More→
Despite having published seven books in her long lifetime, Candace Wheeler (1827–1923) might not be classified as a “literary lady,” let alone a classic author. She was one of the first American women to practice as an interior and textile designer, and opened the profession to other women who followed in her footsteps.
Born Candace Thurber, her father was a Puritan abolitionist so severe that he would not allow the family to use sugar or cotton, and he applied similarly stringent standards to his children’s reading habits, decreeing that they read nothing more fanciful than the Bible and Pilgrim’s Progress.
Yet, she evolved into a superlative aestheticist and the godmother of many female artists, writers, and designers. Often referred to as “the mother of interior design,” she was the actual mother of the accomplished artist and book illustrator Dora Wheeler Keith. Read More→
Octavia E. Butler (1947 – 2006), the esteemed American author of science fiction, blazed a trail in what was once a white male-dominated genre. Here we’ll explore Octavia Butler’s rules for writers, with wisdom for every wordsmith no matter where you are on the journey.
Butler was one of the first women and one of the first African Americans to succeed in the genre of sci-fi. To break through in this realm, she had to blaze her own trail, and became rigorously self-disciplined in her writing practice.
She stuck to a strict schedule, sometimes rising at 2:00 am to write for several hours before heading out to whatever odd job she held before becoming a full-time author. Read More→
Margaret Ayer Barnes (April 8, 1886 – October 25, 1967) was an American novelist, playwright, short-story writer, best known for her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Years of Grace (1930).
Born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, Margaret Ayer was the youngest of four siblings. From an early age, she was quite competitive and regularly had debates with her two older brothers and sisters. Intelligent and curious, she had an interest in theater and was an avid reader.
A friendship with noted playwright Edward Sheldon encouraged her to become a writer. Margaret and Sheldon had much in common and enjoyed discussing the literary merits of plays.
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The last day of October marks Samhain, the end of harvest season and the beginning of winter. This Gaelic festival opens the door to the darker part of the year, and it’s also the anniversary of author Natalie Babbitt’s 2016 death.
What better time to consider Babbitt’s remarkable novel about mortality and immortality, Tuck Everlasting (1975), a story that rewards young and adult readers alike.
When I first reread Tuck, I was in my thirties. It was never one of my school texts: when I was a girl, it hadn’t yet achieved its iconic status. But the timing for me to rediscover this story, about how “dying’s part of the wheel, right there next to being born” was perfect. Read More→
