Black writers

Valuable written words by Black womxn writers

1964 portrait of James Baldwin. All photos courtesy of Sedat Pakay.Being out . . . one is really not very far out of the United States . . . One sees it better from a distance . . . from another place, from another country.-- James BaldwinJames Baldwin (1924-1987), the renowned American novelist, essayist, playwright, civil rights advocate and social critic, was an outspoken advocate for equality and respect for all citizens regardless of race, ethnicity, religion or sexual preference. His…

Maya Angelou (1928-2014), an American writer, is best known for “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” (1969), probably the best single book about what it was like to grow up Black under Jim…

Readers could sense in Morrison’s fiction the influences of Ralph Ellison, the Bible and William Faulkner, among others, but her idiosyncratic music was her own.

James Baldwin and his mind-blowing literary work

A new biography celebrates the life and legacy of Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Gwendolyn Brooks, who wrote about ordinary black life using extraordinary language.

The human condition that Baldwin so masterfully observes and interrogates in his writings transcends his own place in history and remains relevant many generations after their publication.

Johnson Publishing Company, the iconic publisher behind magazines like Ebony and Jet that helped launch the civil rights movement, filed for bankruptcy.

One of hundreds of thousands of free digital items from The New York Public Library.