Poetry.com is a huge collection of poems from famous and amateur poets from around the world — collaboratively published by a community of authors and contributing editors. (7 Toni Morrison Quotes for Writers and About Writing) "I have been successful probably because I have always realized that I knew nothing about writing and have merely tried to tell an interesting story entertainingly." African American writers and poets have fearlessly examined cultural stigmas, provided intimate life details and created remarkable literary works. As the literary editor for 'The Crisis,' Jessie Fauset supported many new voices during the Harlem Renaissance. Dove is known not only for the layered eloquence of her language and ideas but also for portraying portions of the Black experience in America, both on a personal and collective front. She has also written the play The Darker Face of the Earth (1994), and collaborated as a lyricist with a variety of composers. Here are some examples of allusion in well-known literary works: Example 1: The Bluest Eye (Toni Morrison) Gwendolyn Brooks was a postwar poet best known as the first African American to win a Pulitzer Prize for her 1949 book 'Annie Allen. In addition to her poetry, Dove has penned prose, as seen with the short-story collection Fifth Sunday (1985), the novel Through the Ivory Gate (1992) and the essay collection The Poet’s World (1995). She has also won the Pulitzer for her book 'Thomas and Beulah.'. ', W.E.B. Born in Akron, Ohio on August 28, 1952, Rita Dove developed a love for learning and literature at an early age in a household that encouraged reading. She published chapbooks early in her career and made her mark with collections like The Yellow House on the Corner (1980) and Museum (1983). Writer Countee Cullen was an iconic figure of the Harlem Renaissance, known for his poetry, fiction and plays. ', Alice Walker is a Pulitzer Prize-winning, African American novelist and poet most famous for authoring 'The Color Purple.'. Beloved by Toni Morrison. After being kidnapped from West Africa and enslaved in Boston, Phillis Wheatley became the first African American and one of the first women to publish a book of poetry in the colonies in 1773. She also authored novels, essays and poems. Amiri Baraka is an African American poet, activist and scholar. ', Toni Morrison was a Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist. ', Author Octavia E. Butler is known for blending science fiction with African American spiritualism. Toni Morrison was a Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist. ', Writer and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston was a fixture of the Harlem Renaissance and author of the masterwork 'Their Eyes Were Watching God. This is effective in developing characters. She has won numerous awards for her work, including a 1987 Pulitzer Prize for the book of poetry Thomas and Beulah. Robert Hayden was an African American poet and professor who is best known as the author of poems, including “Those Winter Sundays” and “The Middle Passage.”. The poems of Nikki Giovanni helped to define the African American voice of the 1960s, '70s and beyond. Among her best-known novels are 'The Bluest Eye,' 'Song of Solomon,' 'Beloved' and 'A Mercy. (1931–2019) He is widely known for 'Roots' and 'The Autobiography of Malcolm X. African American playwright August Wilson won a Pulitzer Prize and a Tony Award for his play 'Fences' and earned a second Pulitzer Prize for 'The Piano Lesson. 1993: Toni Morrison . He co-founded the NAACP and wrote 'The Souls of Black Folk.'. The 2020 Nobel Laureates talk about their research and careers in a unique roundtable discussion, 'Nobel Minds', moderated by Cecilia Gralde. He is widely known for 'Roots' and 'The Autobiography of Malcolm X. ', James Baldwin was an essayist, playwright, novelist and voice of the American civil rights movement known for works including 'Notes of a Native Son,' 'The Fire Next Time' and 'Go Tell It on the Mountain. Rita Coolidge is an American two-time Grammy Award-winning singer best known for her hits in the 1970s, including the album 'Anytime...Anywhere.'. James Weldon Johnson was an early civil rights activist, a leader of the NAACP, and a leading figure in the creation and development of the Harlem Renaissance. Dove has served as an editor as well, helming The Best American Poetry 2000 and 2011’s Penguin Anthology of 20th Century American Poetry; the latter was released the same year as Dove’s critically acclaimed book-length poem Sonatta Mulattica, about biracial classical violinist George Polgreen Bridgetower. Among her best-known novels are 'The Bluest Eye,' 'Song of Solomon,' 'Beloved' and 'A Mercy. ', Gwendolyn Brooks was a postwar poet best known as the first African American to win a Pulitzer Prize for her 1949 book 'Annie Allen.'. © 2021 Biography and the Biography logo are registered trademarks of A&E Television Networks, LLC. Claude McKay was a Jamaican poet best known for his novels and poems, including "If We Must Die," which contributed to the Harlem Renaissance. © 2021 Biography and the Biography logo are registered trademarks of A&E Television Networks, LLC. Having that in mind, we've rounded up the first lines of some of the world's most famous books, and they stand as excellent examples of how a short sentence or two can set the tone for an entire story - and define its legacy for decades to come. African American writer Toni Morrison (born Chloe Anthony Wofford Morrison, 1931–2019) was an essayist, editor, teacher, and professor emeritus at Princeton University. "use strict";(function(){var insertion=document.getElementById("citation-access-date");var date=new Date().toLocaleDateString(undefined,{month:"long",day:"numeric",year:"numeric"});insertion.parentElement.replaceChild(document.createTextNode(date),insertion)})(); Subscribe to the Biography newsletter to receive stories about the people who shaped our world and the stories that shaped their lives. Among her best-known novels are 'The Bluest Eye,' 'Song of … She was the first African American appointed to the position as well as the first woman and the youngest, at 41 years old. Ralph Ellison was a 20th century African American writer and scholar best known for his renowned, award-winning novel 'Invisible Man. ', Alice Walker is a Pulitzer Prize-winning, African American novelist and poet most famous for authoring 'The Color Purple. She was an exceptional student and was invited to the White House as a Presidential Scholar out of high school. creating settings, and contextualizing a story. He was an influential Black nationalist and later became a Marxist. Toni Morrison was a Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist. ', Alex Haley was a writer whose works of historical fiction and reportage depicted generations of African American lives. Among her best-known novels are 'The Bluest Eye,' 'Song of Solomon,' 'Beloved' and 'A Mercy.' Writer Rita Dove was the youngest person and the first African American to be appointed Poet Laureate Consultant by the Library of Congress. It is often used synonymously with hyperbaton, but can also specifically refer to a specific type of inversion (adjective after the noun).Keep reading to find famous examples of anastrophe in literature and speech. —Ray Bradbury They are discussing the theories, discoveries and research behind their awards, and the value of … Rita Moreno is a Puerto Rican actress known for her role as Anita in 'West Side Story.' She subsequently studied abroad in Germany before returning to the states and earning her M.F.A. Written to honor the memory of African American slaves brought over during the slave trade, Toni Morrison's Beloved is one of the most recognizable and influential texts in modern literature. The PEGOT winner broke new ground for Latinos in entertainment. Her novels include 'Patternmaster,' 'Kindred,' 'Dawn' and 'Parable of the Sower. The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket (1838) is the only complete novel written by American writer Edgar Allan Poe.The work relates the tale of the young Arthur Gordon Pym, who stows away aboard a whaling ship called the Grampus.Various adventures and misadventures befall Pym, including shipwreck, mutiny, and cannibalism, before he is saved by the crew of the … ', Robert Hayden was an African American poet and professor who is best known as the author of poems, including “Those Winter Sundays” and “The Middle Passage.”, Writer Rita Dove was the youngest person and the first African American to be appointed Poet Laureate Consultant by the Library of Congress. Langston Hughes was an African American writer whose poems, columns, novels and plays made him a leading figure in the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s. She met fellow writer Fred Viebahn, also of Germany, in the mid-1970s while he was studying at the Univ. Dove established a fine career in academia, eventually teaching at the University of Virginia and becoming an esteemed, award-winning poet. In 1996, after her laureate post had ended, Dove received the National Humanities Medal from President Bill Clinton, the same year in which she received the Heinz Award in the Arts and Humanities. ', African American playwright August Wilson won a Pulitzer Prize and a Tony Award for his play 'Fences' and earned a second Pulitzer Prize for 'The Piano Lesson. She has also won the Pulitzer for her book 'Thomas and Beulah.'. This masterful exploration of the Faulknerian notion of “not-history” is by turns disturbing, tragic, weird, funny and sad. An algorithm is used to create a master list based on how many lists a particular book appears on. She was also a major force in the Black Arts movement. Other books from Dove include Mother Love and Sonata Mulattica. Toni Morrison, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Richard Wright, Maya Angelou, James Baldwin, Gwendolyn Brooks and others have earned Pulitzer Prizes, NAACP awards and Nobel Prizes, among other honors. ', Alex Haley was a writer whose works of historical fiction and reportage depicted generations of African American lives. The two wed in 1979 and went on to have a daughter, Aviva. This list is generated from 129 "best of" book lists from a variety of great sources. Du Bois was an influential African American rights activist during the early 20th century. She studied in Germany on a Fulbright Scholarship, later teaching creative writing at Arizona State University. from the University of Iowa. ', Toni Morrison was a Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist. Anastrophe is a type of syntax inversion that changes the order of a sentence’s structure for effect. Hands down Toni Morrison’s “Beloved” (1987). Photo: Jack Sotomayor/New York Times Co./Getty Images. (African American writers Robert Hayden and Gwendolyn Brooks were both Library of Congress Consultants in Poetry, which was replaced by the Poet Laureate Consultant title in 1985.). We strive for accuracy and fairness. Other books include Grace Notes (1989) and Mother Love (1995), while her 1999 work On the Bus With Rosa Parks was hailed as a Notable Book of the Year by The New York Times. American film actress Rita Hayworth is best known for her stunning explosive sexual charisma on screen in films throughout the 1930s and 1940s. of Iowa. African American poet Rita Dove loved poetry and music from a young age. Some lists count more than others. Playwright and activist Lorraine Hansberry wrote 'A Raisin in the Sun' and was the first Black playwright and the youngest American to win a New York Critics’ Circle award. In May of 1993, Dove was named the poet laureate of the United States, a post held previously by bards like Robert Penn Warren and Joseph Brodsky. https://www.biography.com/writer/rita-dove. —Edgar Rice Burroughs "First, find out what your hero wants, then just follow him!" In 1986 she published Thomas and Beulah, a semi-autobiographical look at the lives of her grandparents that won the poetry Pulitzer Prize the following year. Navigate through our poetry database by subjects, alphabetically or simply search by keywords. Pioneering African American writer Richard Wright is best known for the classic texts 'Black Boy' and 'Native Son. She was honored as a Presidential Scholar, being ranked as one of the top 100 high school students in the nation, and as a National Merit Scholar attended Ohio’s Miami University, graduating in 1973 summa cum laude. Maya Angelou was a civil rights activist, poet and award-winning author known for her acclaimed 1969 memoir, 'I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,' and her numerous poetry and essay collections. If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us! Most literary allusions are not directly explained to the reader, but instead rely on the reader’s inferential ability. READ MORE: Maya Angelou and 9 Other Best-Selling Black Authors.