My interest to search out female African-American authors has been a long-time, though neglected wish, to know more about their contributions to and role in the literary world. Writers Quote Wednesday 2015 has helped me to fulfill this wish and for this I am grateful.
Nella Larsen.
Larsen, a fiction novelist, is the first African-American female author to win a Guggenheim Fellowship.
In her short-lived career, she published:
- Two BooksPassingQuicksand; and
- Four StoriesFreedomQuicksand
- The Wrong Man
- Sanctuary
Charles Larson, edited Larsen’s literary works; and, published the book, “The Complete Fiction of Nella Larsen”; which, I am currently reading.
Her life story is a sad one — emotional abandonment by parents, controversial divorce, and accusations of plagiarism. The plagiarism allegations, in 1930, related to her last story, “Sanctuary”. Following this, she gave up writing and returned to her career as a nurse.
According to Black History Now,
“Her value to American literature is continually growing. Today, many critics consider her to be the greatest novelist of the Harlem Renaissance, and her work continues to be read nationally and internationally.”
Born on April 13, 1891, in Chicago, Illinois, Larsen died alone on March 30, 1964 in her New York Apartment.