African American Literature

“Spunk” is a short story by Zora Neale Hurston published in 1925. Set in the rural Southern United States, “Spunk” follows the conflict that ensues when one man pursues another man’s wife. The story’s publication helped establish Hurston as a significant literary voice during the Harlem Renaissance. In 1989, George C. Wolfe adapted the story, along with content from two others by Hurston, into a play by the same name. Citations in this guide correspond... Read Spunk Summary

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Ibrahim Kendi’s comprehensive history of racial thought in the US, Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, was published in 2016 and won the National Book Award for Nonfiction. Kendi has also collaborated author Jason Reynolds (Long Way Down, Ain't Burned All the Bright) on a young adult "remix" of Stamped from the Beginning titled Stamped: Racism, Antiracism and You, and is well known for his 2019 book, How to... Read Stamped From the Beginning Summary

Sula, written by Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison, was first published in 1973. It was her second novel, following her 1970 debut The Bluest Eye. Morrison published both novels while still working as an editor at Random House, where she edited books by Angela Davis, Muhammad Ali, and Gayl Jones. Morrison would go on to win the National Book Critics Circle Award for Song of Solomon (1977) and the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for Beloved (1987)... Read Sula Summary

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The short story “Sweat” by American author Zora Neale Hurston was first published in 1926 in Fire!!, a single-issue magazine published during the Harlem Renaissance. Hurston was an anthropologist and writer whose works included many essays on anthropology and folklore focused on African American communities in the American South and the Caribbean, as well as novels and short stories. Her interest in anthropology is reflected in her creative work. For example, she often wrote dialog... Read Sweat Summary

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Written in 1994 by Sharon M. Draper, Tears of a Tiger incorporates various modes of writing, including personal essays, newspaper articles (formal writing), journal entries, and conversations to convey the story of a teenage boy’s descent into grief, guilt, and suicidal ideation following a car crash in which he, as the driver, causes the death of a good friend. The novel explores the importance of mental health in high school students, the effects of drunk... Read Tears of a Tiger Summary

The Amen Corner (1954) is the first play by American author, orator, and civil rights activist James Baldwin. The play critiques Christian religion as a means of reinforcing oppression and poverty, specifically in Black communities. It also covers the rift between men and women in religious settings by examining the fall of its protagonist, a Black preacher named Margaret. Hollywood actress Juanita Moore, who was friends with Marlon Brando, asked Brando to loan $75 for... Read The Amen Corner Summary

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Published anonymously in 1912, The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man is James Weldon Johnson’s fictional memoir centered on how a talented man born to a Black mother and a white father after the Civil War became white in the early-20th century. Johnson, an important critical and artistic contributor to the Harlem Renaissance, published the novel under his own name in 1927 during the height of the movement. The novel is an important bridge between the... Read The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man Summary

The Autobiography of Malcolm X is a nonfiction memoir published in 1965 by American human rights activist Malcolm X, in collaboration with American author Alex Haley. The book is the result of numerous interviews Haley conducted in the two years leading up to Malcolm’s assassination in February 1965. It covers Malcolm’s upbringing in Michigan, his career as a burglar and drug dealer in New York and Boston, his conversion to Islam in prison, his involvement... Read The Autobiography of Malcolm X Summary

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Dinaw Mengestu’s 2007 debut novel, The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears, is a NYT Notable Book, a recipient of the Guardian First Book Award, and the LA Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction. Originally published in the UK under the title Children of the Revolution, the story takes place across three days in the life of Sepha Stephanos, an Ethiopian refugee living in Washington, DC. In his New York Times review of the book... Read The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears Summary

The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born, published in 1968, is a debut novel by Ayi Kwei Armah, one of the most noteworthy writers of postcolonial Ghana. Armah was born in Takoradi, Ghana, in 1939. He was educated at schools in Ghana and private institutions in America, including Harvard University. He has also worked as a translator, scriptwriter, and a university lecturer.The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born focuses on life in post-independence Ghana and... Read The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born Summary

The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness, published in 1993 by Harvard University Press, combines historical, social, political, and cultural dimensions to reconceptualize the contours of Western modernity. Paul Gilroy, noted sociologist and cultural historian, proposes that modernity can be better understood through the analytical frame of the Black Atlantic, a transnational, intercultural, fractal structure of Black political and expressive cultures in the West. Reflections of experiences of modernity by early Black Atlantic intellectuals and... Read The Black Atlantic Summary

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