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African American Fiction & Literature
*** This Guide is No Longer Being Actively Maintained ***
by Milena Hansen, Librarian
This pathfinder will help patrons find the works of their favorite
African American fiction writers. It also provides links to biographies,
critical essays, writers’ associations, book clubs and other relevant
information.
Please Choose from the Following:
Books
Audiobooks
Magazines
Databases
Websites
Programs & Events
Local Resources
Book Clubs & Associations
Books
Here are some useful Subject Headings to search for materials:
African American Authors
African Americans—Fiction
African Americans in Literature
American Literature—African American Authors
Books
African American Literature: A Guide to Reading Interests
Edited by Alma Dawson and Connie Van Fleet
Westport, Conn.: Libraries
Unlimited, 2004.
Over 700 titles are organized by genres; title-author and subject indexes provide additional access.
African-American Writers
Bader, Philip
New York: Facts On File, 2004.
Biographical entries on more than 145 African American
authors. Entries include biographical data, a discussion
of their major works and a list of titles for further reading.
Beloved Harlem:
A Literary Tribute to Black America’s Most Famous
Neighborhood : From the Classics to the Contemporary
Edited by William H. Banks, Jr.
New York: Harlem
Moon, 2005.
A collection of 29 excerpts and short stories, each of
them prefaced with a short biography. It ranges from 1910s
through 2000, from James Weldon Johnson to Toni Morrison
and Rosemarie Robotham.
Black
American Prose Writers: Before the Harlem Renaissance
Edited and with an introduction by Harold Bloom
New York:
Chelsea House, 1994.
Biographies, critical essays, and bibliographies of the
thirteen most significant African American prose writers
up to the early twentieth century.
Black
American Prose Writers of the Harlem Renaissance
Edited and with an introduction by Harold Bloom
New York:
Chelsea House, 1994.
Biographies, critical essays, and bibliographies of the
thirteen most significant African American prose writers
of the early twentieth century.
The Concise Oxford Companion to African American Literature
Edited by William L. Andrews, Frances Smith Foster and
Trudier Harris
New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Offers an impressive range of writers, synopses of major
works, information on literary characters, and general
articles on poetry, fiction, and drama.
Gumbo:
A Celebration of African American Writing
Edited by Marita Golden and E. Lynn Harris. 1st ed.
New
York: Harlem Moon, 2002.
Over 70 writers contributed to this anthology with short
stories and excerpts from their previously published novels. The writers are for the most part contemporary and well-established but there are also some new and promising names among them.
Making Callaloo: 25 Years of Black Literature
Edited by Charles Henry Rowell
New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2002.
A wide range of fiction and poetry reprinted from the African-diaspora
journal Callaloo (see
under Magazines). Includes works from a number of distinguished
African American authors.
Masterpieces
of African-American Literature
Edited by Frank N. Magill
New York: HarperCollins, 1992.
A dictionary of 149 titles in African American literature
in various genres with representation of about 91 authors.
Entries include sections on principal characters, plot,
analysis, and the critical context.
Modern
Black American Fiction Writers
Edited and with an introduction by Harold Bloom
New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1995.
Provides biographical, critical and bibliographical information
on the twelve most significant modern African American
fiction writers with comprehensive bibliographies.
The
Norton Anthology of African American Literature
Edited by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Nellie
Y. McKay
New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1996.
Selections from African American literature beginning with
the spirituals and folktales of the oral tradition and
continuing through the writings of contemporary authors. It features 11 complete longer works.
The Oxford Companion to African American Literature
Edited by William L. Andrews, Frances Smith Foster, and
Trudier Harris; with a foreword by Henry Louis Gates,
Jr.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.
Focuses on life and careers of more than 400 authors of
poetry, fiction and drama. A 15-page essay surveys the
literary history of African American writing from the colonial
era to the present day.
The
Portable Harlem Renaissance Reader
Edited and with an introduction by David L. Lewis
New
York:
Viking, 1994.
Includes many significant stories, essays and poems that
are drawn from the African American journals of this period.
This anthology explores the tension within the arts and
letters movement of this period.
AudioBooks
Search in the OCPL catalog by author’s name or title and look for "sound recording".
Magazines
You will find bestseller lists in popular magazines for African Americans, such as:
Essence
Features African American bestsellers lists in fiction
and nonfiction.
Black Issues Book Review
Publishes reviews of
current African American literature,
both fiction and non-fiction.
Callaloo
The African Diaspora literary journal publishes original
works by black writers worldwide: fiction, poetry, plays,
critical essays, etc.
MosaicBooks.com
Online magazine features books to buy online (with a link
to amazon.com) and provides excerpts; it has a national
list of African American book clubs as well as bookstores,
and an alphabetical list of authors with links to amazon.com.
Databases
For articles about African American fiction and literature, see OCPL’s Online Databases. Here you can access magazine and journal articles, newspapers, and reference books 24 hours a day using your OCPL library card and PIN.
For in-library use of the online databases, please see a librarian.
OCPL subscribes to a number of online databases, including:
African-American History & Culture
Divided into Biographies, Subject Entries, Primary Sources,
Timelines, Image Gallery, and Maps and Charts.
Books
and Literature
A general database containing established African American authors.
Biography
A general biography database includes established African American
authors.
Websites
Many public and academic libraries have lists of authors, biographies, bibliographies, etc. online.
Here are some of them:
African American Fiction Writers: A Selected List
Long list of African American writers’ names divided
in categories: The Classics, Gay & Lesbian, Historical,
Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror, Mystery & Suspense, Urban
Life, Romance, Women, Men, The South, Modern Life & Relationships,
and Bestsellers. From The Public Library of Cincinnati and
Hamilton County.
Digital Schomberg: African American Women Writers of the 19th Century
Digital collection of African American Women writers of
the 19th century searchable by several categories. From
New York Public Library.
African American Writers: A Celebration
Presents an eclectic list of related websites, such as African American Voices in Popular Fiction,
and a Selected Bibliography of new and old authors;
bibliographies of major authors include links to related
websites.
African American Authors
Offers an impressive list of authors’ names divided
in General Fiction, Classic, Science Fiction, Romance,
and Mystery, among others. From
Kansas City, Kansas
Public Library.
African American Reading
An extensive guide to African American
authors in the Library’s catalog. From Indianapolis
Marion County Public Library.
The online bookstores are an excellent
source for the most recent popular fiction
works:
Amazon.com
Search for African American fiction writers, and
look for sidebars: Listmania! (listings by readers).
Barnes
and Noble.com
Search for African Americans Fiction and Literature.
AALBC.com, The African American Book Club
Includes reviews of books, author profiles, discussion
boards, literary events and more. Previews of soon-to-be
published books.
Digital Librarian: African Americans
Contains literally pages and pages of links to African
American sites—a wealth of information, among them links to
fiction writers, for example: African American Writers: Online E-texts.
Programs & Events
Search the Events Calendar on the OCPL website for programs and events.
Local Resources
There are books by and about African American writers in every public library in Onondaga County. The most extensive collections, however, are housed at Beauchamp Branch Library and Central Library.
Also visit the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library at Syracuse University.
Book Clubs & Associations
Look for the nationwide list of African American book clubs at Mosaic Books.com.
The Good Book Club
The membership of “The Good Book Club” is global:
U.S., Canada, Germany. A message board by members (one
can join by filling out an application) informs about new
book releases and events concerning books and reading.
Mostly African American.
Black
Writers Reunion and Conference
Strives to educate, inform, and support aspiring and
published African American writers.
Organization of Black Screenwriters
Began in 1988 “to address the lack of black writers represented within the entertainment industry.” Offers assistance to screenwriters and helps them present their work to the industry.
Last updated: June 26, 2010