Heavenly birthday wishes James Alan McPherson! Born September 16, 1943, James Alan McPherson an African American essayist and short-story writer. He was the first African-American writer to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his collection of short stories, Elbow Room, and was included among the first group of artists who received a MacArthur Fellowship, He died in 2016. He authored a few more works:
Heavenly birthday wishes Alain LeRoy Locke! Born September 13, 1885, Alain LeRoy Locke was an African American writer, philosopher, and educator. Distinguished in 1907 as the first African-American Rhodes Scholar, Locke became known as the philosophical architect—the acknowledged “Dean”—of the Harlem Renaissance. He died in 1954. He authored the following notable books:
Heavenly birthday wishes Kristin Hunter Lattany! Born September 12, 1931, Kristin Elaine Hunter was an African-American writer from Pennsylvania. She sometimes wrote under the name Kristin Hunter Lattany. She is best known for her first novel, God Bless the Child, published in 1964. She also authored Kinfolks, Guests in the Promised Land, which was nominated for a National Book Award, The Landlord, which became a motion picture, and a bestselling young adult novel, The Soul Brothers & Sister Lou. She received the Moonstone Black Writing Celebration Lifetime Achievement Award in 1996. She died in 2008.
Heavenly birthday wishes Guy Johnson! Born September 8, 1945, Clyde Guy Johnson was an African American author, poet, and public servant best known as the only child of legendary literary figure Dr. Maya Angelou. After completing college in Ghana, Guy Johnson managed a bar on Spain’s Costa del Sol, ran a photo-safari service from London through Morocco and Algeria, and worked on oil rigs in Kuwait. Most recently he worked in the local government of Oakland, California, for more than twenty years. He authored three books: Standing at the Scratch Line, Echoes of a Distant Summer and Save the Stratford Canal! He died in 2022.
Happy birthday Mark Whitaker! Born September 7, Mark Whitaker is an African American author, journalist and media executive. He was editor of Newsweek from 1998 until 2006, the first African-American to lead a national news magazine. From 2004 to 2006, Whitaker served as president of the American Society of Magazine Editors. He authored five books, including his memoir: My Long Trip Home.
Happy birthday Imani Perry! Born September 5, Imani Perry is the Henry A. Morss, Jr. and Elisabeth W. Morss Professor of Studies of Women, Gender and Sexuality and of African and African American Studies at Harvard University and the Carol K. Pforzheimer Professor at Harvard Radcliffe Institute. Perry is the African American author of 9 books, including the New York Times Bestseller South to America: A Journey Below the Mason Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation which received the 2022 National Book Award for Nonfiction.
Heavenly birthday wishes Richard Wright! Born September 4, 1908, Richard Wright was an African American author of novels, short stories, poems, and non-fiction. Much of his literature concerns racial themes, especially related to the plight of African Americans during the late 19th to mid 20th centuries suffering discrimination and violence. He died in 1960. He was well-known for his novels, Black Boy and Native Son. His other works include:
Happy birthday Nelson George! Born September 1, Nelson George is an established African American author and filmmaker with a passion for telling stories of the black experience in America. George is the author of several ground breaking histories of African American music, including Where Did Our Love Go: the Rise and Fall of the Motown Sound, The Death of Rhythm & Blues, Hip Hop America and The Hippest Trip in America:Soul Train. He authored a few novels including Urban Romance.
Happy birthday Clint Smith! Born August 25, Clint Smith is an award winning, New York Times bestselling African American author, poet, and scholar. He is the author of the number one New York Times Best Seller, How the Word Is Passed, which won the 2021 National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction and was named one of the top ten books of 2021 by the New York Times.
Happy birthday Dr. Carolyn Mazloomi! Born August 22, Dr. Carolyn Mazloomi is an African American curator, quilter, author, art historian, and aerospace engineer. She is a strong advocate for presenting and documenting African-American-made quilts. Her quilts are designed to tell complex stories around African-American heritage and contemporary experiences. A few of her curated works:
