Research Guides: African American Studies: Literature

African American Literature: Databases & Websites

Black Studies Center
Fully cross-searchable gateway to Black Studies, including scholarly essays, recent periodicals, historical newspaper articles, reference books, and more. Includes the Black Literature Index (1827-1940) and Schomburg Studies on the Black Experience.
Black Drama
Full text of more than 1,200 plays written from the mid-1800s to the present by more than 200 playwrights from North America, English-speaking Africa, the Caribbean, and other African diaspora countries.

African American Women Writers of the 19th Century
Digitally reprints 52 books and pamphlets written before 1920 by African American women. All texts can be searched by title, author, genre, or keyword.

Notable African American Writers
Each entry in this three volume set includes the author's achievements, biography, analysis of major works, and a bibliography. The third volume includes overview essays on African American long fiction, poetry, short fiction, and drama.
Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Literature
Entries cover major authors, subjects, and works throughout Black literary history. Includes entries on African American Studies and African American reference works. Chronology included in Volume I.
Encyclopedia of African American Women Writers
This two volume set features writers of autobiography, drama, essay, fiction, poetry, theory & criticism, and young adult and children's books from 1746 to the present day. Each entry contains a biographical sketch, brief discussion of major works, overview of their critical reception, and a bibliography.
African American Dramatists, An A to Z Guide
The 61 entries in this guide to African American Dramatists over the past 150 years provide biographies, discussion of major works and themes, the critical reception, and a bibliography.