Reference Books

• Andrews, William L, ed.  Oxford Companion to African American Literature. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.
  CALL NUMBER:  Ref. PS153 N5 O96 1997          

This work provides concise, signed articles on authors, specific literary works, themes, and other subjects.  Articles range from one column to four or five pages in length.  Articles are alphabetically arranged.  Contains an index.

• Smith, Valerie, ed.  African American Writers, 2^nd ed.  New York: Scribners, 2001.
  CALL NUMBER:  Ref. PS953 N5 A344 2001 v. 1-2

This two-volume set gives substantial biographical and critical information on 53 major African American writers.  There are also essays on the slave narrative and the spiritual autobiography.  Arrangement is alphabetical by writer's last name.  Bibliographies on each writer are included.  A special feature of the work is a chronology of African American literary history.

• Magill, Frank N., ed.  Masterplots II: African American Literature Series.  Pasadena: Salem, 1994.
  CALL NUMBER:   Ref. PS153 N5 M2645 1994 v.1-3

This is an excellent "first place to go" when looking for material on a specific literary work.  The three volume set, similar to most Magill/Masterplot titles, is a collection of 266 critical essays on literary works of all types by African American authors.  Authors, like poets, whose works lend them selves to a broader treatment, are discussed in "omnibus essays" on the whole body of their work.  There is an annotated bibliography with each essay.  At the beginning of each volume is a list of the works covered in it.  In Volume III there are title and "type of work" indexes for the whole three volume set.

• Page, James A.  Selected Black American Authors: An Illustrated Bio-Bibliography. Boston: G.K. Hall, 1977.
  CALL NUMBER:   Ref. PS153 N5 M2645 1994 v.1-3

This work is an alphabetical listing by author's last name of information on 453 African American authors.  Each entry consists of biographical information on the writer, a list of their published works, and a photograph.  The honors and awards received by a writer are given.  For writers of prominence a brief "sidelight" or comment on their career or work is provided.  Included are title and subject indexes and a bibliography.

• Popkin, Michael, comp. and ed.  Modern Black Writers.  New York: Ungar, 1978.
  CALL NUMBER:  Ref. PN841 M58

This work is made up of excerpts from critical writings on 80 African, African American, and Afro-Caribbean authors of  fiction, poetry, and drama.  Essayists are not included, nor are writers who compose in Spanish or Portuguese.  This volume seeks to reflect the current state (at least as of 1978) of these authors' reputations.  Well over half the excerpts of criticism are by black writers.  The 80 authors covered in this volume are arranged alphabetically by last name.  The critical excerpts within each section are arranged chronologically.  The source of each excerpt is given.  At the start of the book are lists of the authors covered, of the authors by country, of the included authors as critics of each other, and a list of periodicals from which excerpts have been selected.  At the back of the volume is a list of the works mentioned, and an index to the critics from whose works excerpts have been taken.

Subject Headings

Some subject headings to use in searching the Online Library Catalog for information on African American writers are:

• Afro-American authors
• Afro-American dramatists
• Afro-American women in literature
• Afro-American women--Poetry
• Afro-Americans in literature
• American drama--Afro-American authors
• American fiction--Afro-American authors
• American literature--Afro-American authors
• American poetry--Afro-American authors
• Harlem Renaissance

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