For this year’s Women’s History Month, I want to pay tribute to three amazing Black women writers – gifted scribes who have inspired countless fellow writers and readers.
I have long loved the wit, literary grace and poetic insights of the Harlem Renaissance’s Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960). A critically acclaimed Hurston biography,Wrapped in Rainbows: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston, was written by Valerie Boyd (1963-2022).
Unfortunately, Boyd, a lyrical writer, dedicated journalist and media professor, joined the ancestors last month.
But back in 2015 and before Boyd and I appeared together on a panel at the Biographers International Organization annual conference, I had the pleasure of interviewing her. Here’s the link to that interview.
Valerie Boyd also left behind a forthcoming book about a third influential and prolific writer, Alice Walker – the first African American woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for fiction (The Color Purple). Walker’s latest book, Gathering Blossoms Under Fire: The Journals of Alice Walker 1965-2000, will be published in April 2022 by Simon and Schuster.
Boyd co-edited this historic collection of Walker’s intimate writings.
So please 
click on the above links detailing the immense literary talents of Zora Neale Hurson, Valerie Boyd and Alice Walker.