A timely survey of an important sector of American letters, this fourth edition of The Encyclopedia of African-American Writing highlights the role and influence of African-American cultural leaders, from all walks of life, from the 17th century to the present. The text takes readers on a journey to learn about what inspired various African-American writers to create poems, plays, short stories, novels, essays, opinion pieces, and numerous other works, and how those writings contributed to American culture.
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New Coverage, this edition adds even more author biographies, with a focus on contemporary writers at the forefront of today’s conversation about African-American culture and viewpoints.
- New Arrangement, this edition has a new topical arrangement, to aid in discovery. The entries are grouped into four main sections:
- Author Biographies, for a total of 722, with illustrations, cover the important events in a writer’s life, education, major works, honors and awards, and family and important associates.
- African American Organizations & Publications give readers more information about the groups and publications that were important to these writers.
- Primary Documents take the reader on a literary journey from a slave contract in 1635 to the present day.
- African American movements help readers better understand several elements of the civil rights movement, the struggle for voting rights, and the Black Lives Matter movement, among others.
Several timelines, chronologies, and appendices help readers navigate the text and make literary connections by genre, time, and occupation.
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- Appendix of Writers by Genre categorizes all entries by one or more of 26 genres, from Anthologies to Spoken Word.
- Appendix of Writers by Occupation categorizes all entries by one or more of 210 occupations, from Abolitionist to Talk Show Host.
- Chronology of Writers lists all individual writers by birth date.
- Graphically designed Timeline, clearly and interestingly overlaps significant events in the writing lives of African-Americans with relevant current events, such as wars and terms of U.S. presidents.
- Chronology of Firsts, with interesting facts, from the first narrative written by an African-American slave, to the first African-American to receive the Nobel prize for literature.
- A list of Abbreviations, References & Cumulative Index.
