UNITED STATES AUTHOR · AFRICAN AMERICAN AUTHORS · AFRICAN AMERICANS IN
Margaret Walker
Most acclaimed
Prentice Hall Literature -- Platinum
A novel is an extended work of narrative fiction usually written in prose and published as a book. The word derives from the Italian: novella for 'new', 'news', or 'short story (of something new)', itself from the Latin: novella, a singular noun use of the neuter plural of novellus, diminutive of novus, meaning 'new'. According to Margaret Doody, the novel has "a continuous and comprehensive history of about two thousand years", with its origins in the Ancient Greek and Roman novel, Medieval chivalric romance, and the tradition of the Italian Renaissance novella. The ancient romance form was revived by Romanticism, in the historical romances of Walter Scott and the Gothic novel. Some novelists, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Ann Radcliffe, and John Cowper Powys, preferred the term romance.
On Being Female, Black, and Free
These highly personal essays, written over the course of six decades, reveal the woman as well as the artist, capturing the independent creative spirit of this literary icon. In accessible and stirring prose, Walker speaks directly about her own experiences - such as growing up in a deeply religious home, living in the Jim Crow South, marrying and raising a family, and becoming a civil rights activist. These essays also offer Walker's critical perspectives on a wide range of topics, from the role of the black woman artist to the distinctiveness of African American cultural life and to the importance of education in the fight for political change. Maryemma Graham's introduction provides a historical context for the essays, placing Walker's work within the African American literary canon. Walker reflects on the numerous poets and writers she has known over the years, including Zora Neale Hurston, Eudora Welty, Carson McCullers, and Richard Wright. A work of broad general appeal, On Being Female, Black, and Free offers a powerful introduction to the work of an essential American literary figure.
Jubilee
"From "The Diamond Pit," a cautionary tale of the corrupting effects of wealth, to the Nebula Award winning "Da Vinci Rising," to "Jubilee," the haunting title story, this short fiction collection represents the most brilliant work in the fantastic to be seen in the last three decades. Here are dark fables such as "The Black Horn," which introduces a unicorn to modern-day Miami, and the nightmarish "A Quiet Revolution for Death." But Jack Dann's visions can be funny, too, in tales such as "Bad Medicine" and "Fairy Tale," though the comedians and ordinary guys caught up in a world beyond their ken may not always think so. And in works such as "Tattoos" and "Kaddish," Dann addresses the ultimate human hope of redemption."--BOOK JACKET.