Famous Black Writers

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.

Pioneering African American writer Richard Wright is best known for the classic texts 'Black Boy' and 'Native Son.'

Alex Haley was a writer whose works of historical fiction and reportage depicted generations of African American lives. He is widely known for 'Roots' and 'The Autobiography of Malcolm X.'

Writer and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston was a fixture of the Harlem Renaissance and author of the masterwork 'Their Eyes Were Watching God.'

Alice Walker is a Pulitzer Prize-winning, African American novelist and poet most famous for authoring 'The Color Purple.'

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.

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.

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.'

Toni Morrison was a Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist. Among her best-known novels are 'The Bluest Eye,' 'Song of Solomon,' 'Beloved' and 'A Mercy.'

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.'

Author Octavia E. Butler is known for blending science fiction with African American spiritualism. Her novels include 'Patternmaster,' 'Kindred,' 'Dawn' and 'Parable of the Sower.'

W.E.B. Du Bois was an influential African American rights activist during the early 20th century. He co-founded the NAACP and wrote 'The Souls of Black Folk.'

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.

Writer Countee Cullen was an iconic figure of the Harlem Renaissance, known for his poetry, fiction and plays.

Writer Rita Dove was the youngest person and the first African American to be appointed Poet Laureate Consultant by the Library of Congress. She has also won the Pulitzer for her book 'Thomas and Beulah.'

Claude McKay was a Jamaican poet best known for his novels and poems, including "If We Must Die," which contributed to the Harlem Renaissance.

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.

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. She was also a major force in the Black Arts movement.

As the literary editor for 'The Crisis,' Jessie Fauset supported many new voices during the Harlem Renaissance. She also authored novels, essays and poems.

Ralph Ellison was a 20th century African American writer and scholar best known for his renowned, award-winning novel 'Invisible Man.'

Gwendolyn Brooks was a postwar poet best known as the first African American to win a Pulitzer Prize for her 1949 book 'Annie Allen.'

Amiri Baraka is an African American poet, activist and scholar. He was an influential Black nationalist and later became a Marxist.