african american authors

This book describes the life and career of Walter Dean Myers, who writes fiction, nonfiction, and poetry portraying the lives of African American men and boys struggling with important life choices in hostile environments.

Richard Wright grew up in the woods of Mississippi. He endured a difficult childhood in the Jim Crow South.

Chronicles the life and career of author and civil rights activist James Baldwin.

Contains over five hundred alphabetically arranged entries that provide information on African-American literature, covering major and minor authors, notable writings in all genres, terms, themes, historical events, movements, and other topics. Includes cross-references, a bibliography of secondary sources, and a list of major works.

Explores the life and works of Claude McKay, tracing his life, considering how a person dwells in limbo between native and adopted cultures, and discussing how this influenced McKay's writing.

Walter Dean Myers had trouble pronouncing words in high school, so he wrote them down instead.

Profiles the lives of three hundred notable African-American authors, artists, and intellectuals of the Harlem Renaissance; and features information on Langston Hughes, Louis Armstrong, the Scottsboro Boys, and others.

In 1964, African-American author Max Reddick looks back as he dies of cancer, reflecting upon the racism he has faced all his life despite his talent, achievements, and even his marriage to a white woman, and his attempts to escape this identity as just a "black man" in Europe and Africa.

An account of the author's youth in Zimbabwe and in violent Philadelphia street gangs explores how his life was shaped by his father's absence, his brother's imprisonment, and his mother's and sister's struggles with mental illness.