6 Black Female Authors Who Should Be On Your Bookshelf
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There were, and are, many famous Black women whose groundbreaking speeches, songs, and literature have built a foundation in a society that did not encourage or support their invaluable artistry. In particular, there were a multitude of Black female authors that shaped American history, literature, culture, and many other aspects of the world around us.
They endured personal and professional criticism and backlash for their determination and strength to share their voice, and it is important to take time to commemorate their work.
With the current events of the world and in celebration of Black History Month, we recommend self-education, as there is always something to learn and grow in awareness of. Reading these historical works by Black female authors will further open your eyes to the many struggles that were faced and surmounted (and continue to be) by these women and their communities.
We have selected must-read books from each of the following famous Black female authors that you should check out!
Toni Morrison (1931- 2019)
No list of Black authors is complete without Toni Morrison. Morrison has been celebrated in contemporary literature for her uncanny and haunting descriptions of Black experience in America, particularly Black female experience. Born in 1931, she passed only in 2019, and received the Nobel prize for Literature in 1993.
We recommend trying Morrison’s very first novel, The Bluest Eye. Published in 1970, this stunningly sad novel follows a young Black girl, who is overcome with an obsession for white standards of beauty and longs for blue eyes of her own.
““We mistook violence for passion, indolence for leisure, and thought recklessness was freedom.” ”
Books by Toni Morrison
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Maya Angelou (1928- 2014)
Maya Angelou is a leading figure in famous Black female authors and is best known for her seven autobiographical novels. She is a poet, lecturer, and civil rights leader. A prominent civil rights activist, she worked alongside Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X.
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969) is the first of her autobiographies, and is an unsettling and gripping retelling of the first seventeen years of her life. It is this novel that brought Angelou international and long-lasting renown. Intensely personal and painful, she writes of the difficulties of her broken family and home, racism in America, and the trauma of abuse.
““If growing up is painful for the Southern Black girl, being aware of her displacement is the rust on the razor that threatens the throat. It is an unnecessary insult.” ”
Books by Maya Angelou
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Lorraine Hansberry (1930-1965)
In her short life of 34 years, Lorraine Hansberry took the world by storm. She was the first Black female to have a play performed on Broadway, and the youngest playwright and first Black dramatist to win the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award. Working with the likes of W.E.B. Du Bois, she worked tirelessly for Black rights, anti-segregation, and gay rights.
A Raisin in the Sun (1959) is Hansberry’s most well-known work. The title actually originates from the poem “Harlem” by Langston Hughes, where he famously writes: “What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?” Hansberry’s heart-breaking play depicts the struggles of segregation in Chicago in the 1950’s, and it changed the scope of Black artistry and conversation about segregation in America.
““When you starts measuring somebody, measure him right, child, measure him right. Make sure you done taken into account what hills and valleys he come through before he got to wherever he is.””
Books by Lorraine Hanberry
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Alice Walker (1944- Present)
Born to a sharecropping family in southern Georgia, Alice Walker grew up with everyday segregation and racism. She began to write poetry, short stories, and novels at a young age when she was accidentally blinded in one eye and turned to writing as a creative outlet for her pains. Walker is treasured for her writing on cultural and social revolution, female empowerment, and racial equality.
Her novel, The Color Purple (1982), brought Walker’s name to fame, winning the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. It is the difficult story of several young Black women who endure the sexist and racist society of the 1930’s southern United States. It was later adapted into a film directed by Steven Spielberg in 1985 (which also featured Oprah Winfrey and Whoopi Goldberg).
““I am an expression of the divine, just like a peach is, just like a fish is. I have a right to be this way...I can’t apologize for that, nor can I change it, nor do I want to... We will never have to be other than who we are in order to be successful...We realize that we are as ourselves unlimited and our experiences valid. It is for the rest of the world to recognize this, if they choose.””
Books By Alice Walker
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bell hooks (1952- Present)
A feminist champion, bell hooks writes for revolutionary reform. She is a scholar, social activist, author of more than 30 books, and lecturer on topics of race, class, and gender. Born Gloria Jean Watkins, bell hooks pens under her pseudonym for a more anonymous, every-woman approach to her work, and in dedication to her beloved great-grandmother.
Her work, Ain’t I A Woman (1981), is a critical reflection that offers a new approach to feminism and social reform that ranks high amidst the work of Black female authors. She examines the ways in which Black women today are still affected by the racist, sexist stereotypes conditioned during the times of slavery in America.
““A devaluation of Black womanhood occurred as a result of the sexual exploitation of Black women during slavery that has not altered in the course of hundreds of years.””
Books By bell hooks
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Zora Neale Hurston (1891- 1960)
A colorful and confident woman, Zora Neale Hurston makes the top of the list of Black female authors for her lasting impact on the Harlem Renaissance and later writers. Her celebrated writing examined Black folklore and promoted Black culture, but she did not gain proper recognition for her works until very late in her career. She was buried in an unmarked grave, and it was in fact Alice Walker (mentioned above) that found her grave and marked it.
Her novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), takes its place on the list of influential novels written by Black female writers, because of its impact on women’s literature and African-American literature. It was banned at one point due to the explicitness with which Hurston describes the trauma that the female protagonist, Janie, faces in her search for identity.
““Some people could look at a mud puddle and see an ocean with ships.””
Books By Zora Neal Hurston
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Try giving one (or several, if you have the time) a read this month! Push yourself to learn something new about the timeline and density of Black struggle in America, so as to grow in understanding of yesterday’s impact on today’s society. We at Swift are also trying to do the same!