page_title: Lists of African Americans
section_title: Novelists and poets
hierarchical_section_title: Lists of African Americans / Novelists and poets
caption_attribution_description: English: Samuel Delany at a reading in January 2015
context_page_description: This is a list of African Americans, also known as Black Americans or Afro-Americans. African Americans an ethnic group and citizens of the United States who have full or partial ancestry of any black racial groups of Africa; Black and African Americans form the third largest racial and ethnic group in the United States, behind White Americans and Hispanic and Latino Americans. African Americans are descendants of enslaved black people who are from the United States.
  To be included in this list, the person must have a Wikipedia article and/or references showing the person is African-American.
context_section_description: Ron Allen, poet, playwright
  Elizabeth Alexander, poet, essayist, playwright
  Maya Angelou, novelist, poet, and activist
  James Baldwin, novelist, playwright, and activist
  Amiri Baraka, poet, writer, activist, and essayist
  Gwendolyn B. Bennett, poet, writer, journalist, and artist
  Arna Bontemps, poet, novelist, and librarian
  Gwendolyn Brooks, poet, author, teacher
  Lucille Clifton, poet, writer, and educator
  Countee Cullen, poet, novelist, and playwright
  Frank Marshall Davis, poet, journalist
  Samuel R. Delany, novelist, author, editor, professor, and literary critic
  Paul Laurence Dunbar, poet, novelist
  Ralph Ellison, novelist, literary critic, and scholar
  Nikki Giovanni, poet, writer, commentator, activist, and educator
  Alex Haley, novelist, author
  Lorraine Hansberry, playwright
  Frances Harper, poet
  Yona Harvey, poet, professor
  Robert Hayden, poet, essayist, and educator
  Gil Scott-Heron, poet, author
  Langston Hughes, poet, activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist
  Erica Hunt, poet, essayist, and teacher
  Nella Larsen, novelist, librarian, and nurse
  Brent Leggs, historian and preservationist, writer, academic
  Toni Morrison, novelist, essayist, editor, teacher and professor
  Walter Mosley, novelist
  Walter Dean Myers, novelist
  Marilyn Nelson, poet, translator, professor
  Pat Parker, poet, activist
  Leonard Pitts, novelist, commentator, journalist, and columnist
  Kevin Powell, poet, activist
  Ishmael Reed, poet, novelist, essayist, songwriter, playwright, editor, and publisher
  Shawn Stewart Ruff, novelist
  Patricia Smith, poet, playwright, author, teacher, and journalist
  Tracy K. Smith, poet, educator
  Ntozake Shange, novelist, playwright and poet
  Natasha Trethewey, poet, professor
  Alice Walker, novelist, writer, poet, and activist
  Margaret Walker, novelist, poet and writer
  Dorothy West, novelist, columnist
  Colson Whitehead, novelist
  John Edgar Wideman, novelist, author, and professor
  Richard Wright, novelist, poet, and essayist
  Al Young, poet, novelist, essayist, screenwriter, and professor
  Kevin Young, poet, professor, editor, and literary critic
caption: Samuel R. Delany
exif: {}