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Shaping Memories – Reflections of African American Women Writers - University Press of Mississippi
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Shaping Memories: Reflections of African American Women Writers

Joanne Veal Gabbin

Abstract

This book offers short chapters by notable black women writers on pivotal moments that strongly influenced their careers. With chapters by such figures as novelist Paule Marshall, folklorist Daryl Cumber Dance, poets Mari Evans and Camille Dungy, essayist Ethel Morgan Smith, and scholar Maryemma Graham, the anthology provides a thorough overview of the formal concerns and thematic issues facing contemporary black women writers. The book includes an introduction that places these writers in the context of American literature in general and African American literature in particular. Each chapter ... More

Keywords: black women writers, American literature, African American literature, educational institutions, societal restrictions, racism, sexism, religious chauvinism, power of words, aesthetic development

Bibliographic Information

Print publication date: 2009 Print ISBN-13: 9781604732740
Published to University Press of Mississippi: March 2014 DOI:10.14325/mississippi/9781604732740.001.0001

Authors

Affiliations are at time of print publication.

Joanne Veal Gabbin, editor

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Contents

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Front Matter

Title Pages

Dedication

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Women in Community

A Distant Star Called Possibility

Nikki Giovanni

Wintergreen and Alaga Syrup

Carmen R. Gillespie

From “Shaping the World of My Art”

Paule Marshall

Outside of Dreams

Ethel Morgan Smith

Negotiating the Academy

The Case of the Reluctant Reader

Sandra Y. Govan

Parting the Blue Miasma

Kendra Hamilton

New Kid on the Block

Joanne Veal Gabbin

Obstacles or Opportunities

Elizabeth Brown-Guillory

The Faith Walk of Writing

Marilyn Sanders Mobley

Silence … A Dangerous Luxury

On My Return from Exile

Linda Williamson Nelson

Of History and Healing

Janus Adams

The Conscientious Outsider

Camille Dungy

The Mother’s Board

Opal Moore

Spirit Houses

My Father’s Passage

Mari Evans

A Blessed Life

Maryemma Graham

A Birth and a Death, or Everything Important Happens on Monday

Daryl Cumber Dance

Ambrosia

Nikky Finney

What Roots Us

Cotton Pickin’ Authority

Trudier Harris

The First Time I Saw Big Daddy Grinning

Lovalerie King

On Gardening, or A Love Supreme

Joyce Pettis

A Very Good Year

Hermine Pinson

A Sanctuary of Words

Bury the Thought

Karla FC Holloway

The Death of the Mother

Eugenia Collier

A Remembrance

Sonia Sanchez

The Night I Stopped Singing like Billie Holiday

Toi Derricotte

Afterword: Rites, Rituals, and Creative Ceremonies

Sandra Y. Govan

Poetry Reading

Opal Moore

End Matter

Contributors