Authors' Birthdays: May

Posted by Sharyn Skeeter May 1, 2007

May 1: Sterling Brown (1901-1989) was a poet and literary critic who was also interested in African-American folklore. Among his books are Southern Road, Negro Poetry, Drama and the Negro in American Fiction, and The Collected Poems of Sterling A. Brown (edited by Michael Harper).

May 10: Jayne Cortez has published ten books of poetry. She has recorded nine CDs of her poetry with her band The Firespitters. She has received several awards including the International African Festival Award, the Langston Hughes Award, and the American Book Award.

May 11: Edward Kamau Brathwaite is a Barbadian poet, historian, playwright, and essayist. He is a prolific writer who has published many books. A few of his poetry collections are Masks, Roots, Soweto, and Third World Poems.

May 19: Lorraine Hansberry (1930-1965), playwright, in 1959, was the first African-American woman to have a drama (Raisin in the Sun) produced on Broadway. She also wrote The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window and Les Blancs, as well as scripts for public television before she died from cancer at 34. To Be Young, Gifted and Black was adapted from her writings posthumously.

May 25: Jamaica Kincaid, Antigua-born, is a novelist and short story writer. Her books include Lucy, My Garden, Talk Story, Seed Gathering Atop the World, and others. She has received the Anifield-Wolf Book Award and The Lila-Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund Award.

May 30: Countee Cullen (1903-1946) was a Harlem Renaissance writer who published four collections of poetry, translations, plays, and one novel. The poetry included The Ballad of the Brown Girl, Copper Sun, The Black Christ and Other Poems, and Color. His most well-known poem is “Yet Do I Marvel.”

May 31: Al Young is a poet, novelist, and college professor who has won numerous awards for his writing. Among his many books are Dancing, Sitting Pretty, Who Is Angelina?, Kinds of Blue, and Mingus, Mingus. He has also written screenplays and edited African American Literature: A Brief Introduction and Anthology.