Black History Month 2012: African-American Female Authors and Poets

February is Black History Month, and this year’s theme is “Black Women in American Culture and History.” As part of the library’s celebration of Black History Month, we would like to honor African-American female authors and poets by promoting their literature, so we’ve created a list of authors (below) with links to their works in the DBRL library catalog.

While this list focuses on female authors who write literature for adults rather than children’s literature (including writers of urban fiction and urban christian fiction, among other genres including novels, short stories, poetry, and some non-fiction), we have made an effort to cover the library’s collection as comprehensively as possible. Please leave a comment if you notice mistakes or omissions.

Happy reading!

African-American Female Authors and Poets at DBRL:

Many thanks to the University of Pennsylvania for their excellently researched list of female African-American authors, which was heavily used in compiling this list.

Credits:

• Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune photo by Gordon Parks, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
• Ella Fitzgerald photo by William P. Gottlieb, William P. Gottlieb/Ira and Leonore S. Gershwin Fund Collection, Music Division, Library of Congress. (Part of the Golden Age of Jazz collection that entered the public domain on February 16, 2010.)
• Marian Anderson photo by Harris & Ewing, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
• Shirley Chisholm photo by Thomas J. O’Halloran, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
• Collage format courtesy of Photovisi.com.

Related Posts:

• Fiction Picks for Black History Month
• Nonfiction Picks for Black History Month
• Black History Month 2012: African-American Female Musicians
• Black History Month 2012: Black Women in American Culture and History
• Summer Listmania: Books for Your Beach Bag