Praise for the print edition:
"...an excellent starting point or background resource for anyone conducting research within the broad spectrum of African American literature."—Booklist
"Recommended."—Choice
"...helpful...progressive...clearly written...recommended..."—Library Journal
Encyclopedia of African-American Literature, Third Edition covers the entire spectrum of the African-American literary tradition, from the 18th-century writings of pioneers such as Olaudah Equiano and Phillis Wheatley, to 20th-century canonic texts, to the finest of today’s best-selling authors and rap artists. Entries include major and minor writers of prose fiction and nonfiction, poets, dramatists, and critics, as well as the finest works of African-American literature, from all genres and time periods.
Writers new to this edition include Ta-Nehisi Coates, Clint Smith, Yaa Gyasi, and many more.
Coverage includes:
- Maya Angelou
- James Baldwin
- Beloved
- Black aesthetic
- Black arts movement
- Black Boy
- Gwendolyn Brooks
- The civil rights movement
- The Color Purple
- Frederick Douglass
- W.E.B. DuBois
- Ralph Ellison
- Langston Hughes
- Invisible Man
- Jamaica Kincaid
- Toni Morrison
- Gloria Naylor
- A Raisin in the Sun
- Tricksters
- Alice Walker
- Phillis Wheatley
- Richard Wright.