As Women’s History Month, or as we like to call it ‘round these parks—Black Women’s History Month—reaches it’s midway point, we here at The Root felt it fitting to highlight a handful of highly talented writers whose work has contributed mightily when it comes to understanding race, class, gender, and society at large. Their passion and prowess paved the way for many who came after them and ones still to come, so it’s only right we honor them.
Suggested Reading
Let’s kick things off with the woman whose work holds a personal spot in my heart (and many others, I’m sure): Toni Morrison. I can still remember the day I randomly grabbed her book Sula off of my high school teacher’s bookshelf out of sheer curiosity. What I didn’t know was that it would be the beginning of an author love affair that would lead to me to study and read a handful of her other works such as Song of Solomon, Beloved, The Bluest Eye, Jazz, The Source of Self-Regard and more. For all her illuminating words or wisdom, Toni Morrison—we thank you.
Zora Neale Hurston
Up next is the acclaimed author and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurtson, another personal favorite. With seminal works like Their Eyes Were Watching God, Mules and Men and later Barracoon, Hurston’s contributions during the Harlem Renaissance era and the years that followed proved to be a blueprint for detailing Black American folklore and the vast experiences of Southern Black life and Black women.
Maya Angelou
What truly can be said about the revered author, poet and civil rights activist Maya Angelou. Thanks to her groundbreaking autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Angelou’s powerful words catapulted her into the mainstream. Along with autobiographies, essays and poems, her contributions during the Civil Rights era also positioned the Missouri-born artist as a trusted and authentic voice for Black folks across the company.
Audre Lorde
“If I didn’t define myself for myself, I’d be crunched into other people’s fantasies for me and eaten alive.”
This phrase, uttered by the “Black, lesbian, feminist, socialist, mother, warrior and poet” Audre Lorde given as a part speech in celebration of Malcom X back in 1982 has been an anthem for women (and a compass for me, personally) who refuse to be defined and limited by societal expectations. Thanks to Lorde’s additional poems, prose, and pioneering work centered around intersectionality, her contributions served as beacon to today’s understanding of racism, sexism, classism, feminism, civil rights, and identity.
Alice Walker
If it wasn’t for author, poet, and activist Alice Walker, we’d never know that Hurston was buried in an unmarked grave following her passing. Nor would she she had been posthumously honored. We also wouldn’t have gotten her moving 1982 work, The Color Purple, which helped her become the first Black woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize for fiction and has since been adapted into various mediums over the years.
Octavia E. Butler
Whether it be Kindred, Parable of the Sower, Fledgling or some other work entirely, Octavia E. Butler’s creative works are vital when it comes to the interpretation of science fiction writing and Afro-futurism. Due to her books and short stories and persistence, she became the first science fiction writer to receive a MacArthur Fellowship.
bell hooks
When picking either a book or collection of essays by the renowned author and social critic bell hooks, one must be ready to contend with such broad topics such as race, gender, class, love, sexuality, classism, feminism and more. One must also be ready to be enlightened by just how those aforementioned macro entities, constructs and ideologies coexist and influence us on a micro, interpersonal level. (One must also be prepared to have your edges ripped a part due to the harsh truths present in her work that demand you take inventory of your own thoughts, feelings, and actions—looking at you All About Love, specifically. I’m still trying to recover to this day.)
Lorraine Hansberry
Not only did writer and playwright, Lorraine Hansberry pen the acclaimed play A Raisin in the Sun, but in doing so, she became the first Black woman author ever to have a play performed on Broadway. The influential play also earned Hansberry the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award, making her the first Black dramatist, fifth woman, and youngest playwright to achieve that feat. In addition to the play, Hansberry’s activism efforts also afforded her the opportunity to collaborate with other leading thought leaders and essayists at the time such as W.E.B. DuBois and Langston Hughes.
Terry McMillan
In life, there comes a point when we all exhale—but before doing so we might ought to thank Terry McMillan for putting pen to paper to create a handful of creative works that spoke to the modern Black women’s experience. Whether tackling love, friendship, age, interpersonal connections, or identity through fiction like Waiting to Exhale or How Stella Got Her Groove Back, McMillan’s body of work has proven instrumental in authentically highlighting and celebrating the Black woman’s experience.
Nikki Giovanni
Similar to McMillan, the works of author and poet Nikki Giovanni have stood the test of time and expanded the worldview of not only Black women, but Black people as a whole. Gaining prominence during the Black Arts Movement in the 1960s, her activism and written contributions have been heralded by the most respected persons and entities and have earned her countless awards and critical acclaim throughout her illustrious career. Her life and work were also recently the subject of a popular 2023 Sundance documentary entitled Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project.
J. California Cooper
Lauded by the aforementioned author Alice Walker, playwright J. California Cooper’s work embodies the creative folk-storytelling of Zora Neale Hurston while also bringing new energy to the ways in which the lives and times of Black folks are experienced and respected. It’s for that reason she won Black Playwright of the Year in 1978 and works like In Search of Satisfaction, Strangers, and Some Love, Some Pain, Sometime continue to hold up as seminal pieces in Black art.
Gwendolyn Brooks
There is much to be said about author and poet Gwendolyn Brooks. Whether it be about her work during the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s or her earlier poetry (Annie Allen) that made her the first Black person to ever receive the Pulitzer Prize, what’s undeniable is that Brooks’ words left an indelible mark on how the ordinary lives of Black women and children were viewed. Her impact continues to be a source of inspiration and aspiration for those coming up.
Jesmyn Ward
Novelist Jesmyn Ward is best known for her work 2011 book Salvage the Bones, which earned her National Book Award for Fiction. Six years later, she would become a recipient for the award again for her 2017 book, Sing, Unburied, Sing which centers around themes of race, family, life, death and family. As it stands, Ward is the only Black person and only woman to be a two-time recipient of the prestigious award.
Tayari Jones
If you don’t know the name Tayari Jones, then you may know the name of her popular 2018 novel, An American Marriage. After securing its spot as Oprah’s Book Club selection that year, the book skyrocketed on the best-selling charts and earned her the 2019 Women’s Prize for Fiction. Her previous notable works include Leaving Atlanta, The Untelling and Silver Sparrow.
Ntozake Shange
Acclaimed poet and playwright Ntozake Shange is perhaps best known for her 1976 theater piece, for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf. The significant choreopoem creatively told the story of a handful of Black women and told their stories of love, pain, loss, racism, sexism and more through both words and music. Additionally, Shange also published a myriad of other well-received plays, poems, and novels centered around the lived experiences of Black women, men and children.
Nnedi Okorafor
Taking a page out of Octavia Butler’s book, Nnedi Okorafor is a renowned Nigerian-American author known for her popular Binti Series—a sci-fi/fanstasy collection of novels first published in 2015. Combining elements of Afrofuturism, Afrojujuism, and her own heritage, Okorafor’s works across novels, novellas, short fiction and more have earned her numerous awards such as the Hugo Award and several television and movie deals.
Margaret Walker
Born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1915, Margaret Walker became a renowned poet and author thanks to her 1942 poetry collection “For My People.” The work garnered her the Yale Series of Younger Poets Competition, thusly becoming the first Black woman to receive a national writing praise. She would follow “For My People” up later with her first and only novel “Jubilee” in 1966 which is based on the life of Walker’s own great-grandmother and follows an enslaved family’s journey pre and post-Civil War.
Angela Davis
Activist. Political figure. Controversial voice. Author. Those are just a few words to describe the woman that is Angela Davis. From using her words to fight for civil rights and social justice, to pushing the pen to author or edit several books including “If They Come In the Morning: Voices of Resistance,” “Women, Race & Class,” “Are Prisons Obsolete?” and more—Davis’ work and contributions in society and specifically in the writing community are still considered to be among the most influential and important.
