Authors' Birthdays: June
Each month, I’ll honor a sampling of African-American authors on their birthdays. Here’s the calendar for June.
June 2
Addison Gayle, Jr. (1932-1991) was an author and critic in the Black Arts Movement whose work reflected black cultural nationalism. His books include The Way of the New World and The Black Aesthetic.
June 2
Dorothy West (1901-1998), novelist, short story writer, and journalist, became known during the Harlem Renaissance as editor of the journal Challenge (later, New Challenge). She was best known for her novel, The Living is Easy.
June 7
Nikki Giovanni, nicknamed The Princess of Black Poetry, is author of many poetry collections, essays, and other writings. She's won awards such as an NAACP Image Award and the Langston Hughes Medal for Outstanding Poetry.
June 7
Gwendolyn Brooks (1917- 2000) was the first African-American poet to win the Pulitzer Prize (1950). After that she was awarded many more prizes, published many books including 20 poetry collections, an autobiography, Report from Part One, and a novel, Maud Martha.
June 14
John Edgar Wideman has won many awards for his writing, including the International PEN/Faulkner Award twice. He has written over 20 books, including novels, short story collections, memoirs, and others.
June 20
Charles W. Chesnutt (1858-1932) was an early African-American novelist who used folklore and ideas on racial identity in his books The Wife of His Youth and Other Stories of the Color Line, The House Behind the Cedars, The Marrow of Tradition, and The Conjure Woman.
June 20
E. Lynn Harris is the popular author of many novels, including Just As I Am, Any Way the Wind Blows, and A Love of My Own, all winners of Blackboard's Novel of the Year Award.
June 22
Octavia Butler (1947-2006) was a science fiction writer who won the Hugo and Nebula awards for her work. Her novels include the Patternist series, Kindred, Parable of the Sower and others.
June 25
Aimé Césaire, from Martinique, is a poet, playwright, and politician who is associated with the négritude movement of French-speaking people of African descent who rejected French colonialism. His poetry collections include Return to My Native Land and Collected Poetry.
June 27
Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906) was a nationally known poet, fiction writer, essayist, and playwright in the early 20th century. Two of his books are Oak and Ivy and Lyrics of the Lowly Life.
June 27
Lucille Clifton's first book of poetry, Good Times, was honored by The New York Times as one of the best books of 1969. She has written several more poetry collections and children's books. Clifton was Poet Laureate of Maryland (1979-1982).
