African American Poets: Lives, Works, and Sources

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Bloomsbury Academic, Jun 30, 2002 - Literary Criticism - 376 pages

Covering 46 poets from more than two centuries of African American literary history, this biocritical dictionary is an important contribution to any reference collection. The poets are situated within their historical and literary context, and for each a brief biographical sketch is given, with information on the poet's personal history, education, influences, and accomplishments. Each entry examines the poet's work as a whole, with a discussion of selected important poems and their recurrent themes. Students and interested readers will gain a good appreciation for the stylistic features and artistic contributions made by these African American poets. For further research, each essay concludes with a list of the poet's published book-length works, anthologies where their poetry appears, and information on reference resources.

This reference work is introduced with an insightful overview of the significant developments and contributions in African American poetry, from the 18th century poetry of Phillis Wheatley, through the major arts movements including the Harlem Renaissance and the Black Arts Movements of the 1960s, up to the present time. This thoughtful dictionary explores both the aesthetic and the social functions of the literary movements, as well as the individual poet's contributions to the body of poetic output. Covered here are numerous contemporary African American voices such as Maya Angelou, Yusef Komunyakaa, and Rita Dove. Alongside the names synonymous with the Harlem Renaissance, such as Gwendolyn Brooks and Langston Hughes, are lesser known poets about whom students often have trouble finding information but whose contributions are no less significant.

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Contents

Wanda Coleman 1946
59
114
199
Selected Anthologies
351
Copyright

Other editions - View all

African American Poets: Lives, Works, and Sources
Joyce Pettis
No preview available - 2002
African American Poets

No preview available - 2014

Common terms and phrases

African American poetry Amiri Baraka Angelou Anthology Baraka became Black Arts Movement black poets Black Women Writers blues Bontemps Broadside Press Callaloo Chicago City Clifton College Cortez Countee Countee Cullen creative Critical Cullen culture dance daughter death Derricotte Derricotte's Detroit Dictionary of Literary Dudley Randall Etheridge Knight experience father Gale Research Giovanni Gwendolyn Brooks Harlem Renaissance Harper high school Horton House Hughes's images James James Weldon Johnson jazz Jean Toomer John Johnson Jordan Knight Komunyakaa Langston Hughes language Literature lived Lorde's Mackey Mackey's Madhubuti Mari Evans McKay mother Negro Nikki Nikki Giovanni numerous Paul Laurence Dunbar Phillis poem's poet's poetic political Print published racial reader Reed REFERENCES Robert Hayden Sanchez Selected Poems slave Song Sonia Sanchez speaker stanza story Third World Press title poem Tolson Toomer tradition Trudier Harris University Press violence voice volume Walker Wheatley woman Wright writing poetry York young

References to this book

About the author (2002)

JOYCE PETTIS is Professor of English at North Carolina State University, where she teaches courses in African American Literature. She is the author of numerous articles on Margaret Walker, Charles Chestnutt, and others, and of the award winning Toward Wholeness in Paule Marshall's Fiction.

Bibliographic information

TitleAfrican American Poets: Lives, Works, and Sources
AuthorJoyce Pettis
Editionillustrated
PublisherBloomsbury Academic, 2002
Original fromthe University of Michigan
DigitizedFeb 27, 2008
ISBN031331117X, 9780313311178
Length376 pages
Subjects ›  › 

Literary Criticism / American / General
Literary Criticism / General
  
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