‘Black Women Writers at Work’ remains a vital contribution to Black literature

Long out of print, the anthology “Black Women Writers at Work” remains a vital contribution to Black literature. This year the book is being reprinted. Through candid interviews with more than a dozen luminaries the book highlights the practices and critical linkages between the work and lived experiences of Black women writers whose contributions laid the foundation for many who have come after them.

Finally available for a new generation, this classic work presents an urgent message for readers and writers today. Edited by Claudia Tate with a foreword by Tillie Olsen, Black Women Writers at Work is a rare find.

“Black women writers and critics are acting on the old adage that one must speak for oneself if one wishes to be heard.”

Claude Tate

The World’s Best Black Writers

The book includes candid interviews with Maya Angelou, Toni Cade Bambara, Gwendolyn Brooks, Alexis De Veaux, Nikki Giovanni, Kristin Hunter, Gayl Jones, Audre Lorde, Toni Morrison, Sonia Sanchez, Ntozake Shange, Alice Walker, Margaret Walker, and Sherley Anne Williams.

Why we write

Responding to questions about why and for whom they write, how they perceive their responsibility to their work, to others and to society, the featured playwrights, poets, novelists, and essayists provide a window into the connections between their lives and their art.

Claudia Tate was a professor of English and African-American studies at Princeton University, known for her innovative contributions
to African-American literary criticism. “Black Women Writers at Work” is Tate’s first book.