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Diversity in the Curriculum |
On display in the English Advising Office is a poster showing "Some Notable Writers of Color." The authors on this poster were taken from a larger list of writers who were all taught in the University of Washington’s Department of English during the late 1990s. That list has about 125 names on it. If we went farther back or farther ahead in time, it would be even larger. Some are studied frequently (Toni Morrison, Sherman Alexie, Zora Neale Hurston), while others may appear only once in years (Ishmael Reed, Younghill Kang, Betty Louise Bell). Most of the courses in which they are taught are not identified specifically as having to do with writers of color.
The list below includes all 52 of the authors who appear on our poster, together with selected works—by no means all.
For more information about studying writers of color at the UW Department of English, see our "Short Guide to Studying Writers of Color." If you have questions about this display or these web pages please contact , English Undergraduate Advising, 206-543-2634.
Click on an author's name for more information about that author.
Chinua Achebe (1930 - )
• Things Fall Apart • No Longer at Ease • Arrow of God • A Man of the People
Meena Alexander (1951 - )
• Manhattan Music • The Shock of Arrival: Reflections on Postcolonial Experience
Sherman Alexie (1966 - )
• The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven • Reservation Blues • Indian Killer • The Business of Fancydancing
Agha Shahid Ali (1949 - 2001)
• The Beloved Witness: Selected Poems • A Nostalgist's Map of America
Peter Bacho (1951 - )
• Dark Blue Suit and Other Stories • Cebu
James Baldwin (1924 - 1987)
• Go Tell it on the Mountain • Notes of a Native Son • Giovanni's Room • Another Country • The Fire Next Time • Blues for Mister Charlie • If Beale Street Could Talk • Just Above My Head • The Evidence of Things Not Seen
Betty Louise Bell (1949 - )
• Faces of the Moon
Gwendolyn Brooks (1917 - 2000)
• The Bean Eaters • A Street in Bronzeville • Maud Martha
Carlos Bulosan (1911 - 1956)
• America is in the Heart
Lan Cao (1963 - )
• Monkey Bridge
Ana Castillo (1953 - )
• This Bridge Called My Back: Voices of Third World Women in the United States, edited with Cherrķe Moraga • Loverboys • My Father was a Toltec and selected poems • Massacre of the Dreamers: Essays on Xicanisma • So Far From God
Charles Chesnutt (1858 - 1932)
• The Wife of His Youth and Other Stories of the Color Line • The Conjure Woman • The House Behind the Cedars • The Marrow of Tradition
Sandra Cisneros (1954 - )
• The House on Mango Street • My Wicked Wicked Ways • Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories • Loose Woman: Poems
Edwidge Danticat (1969 - )
• Farming of Bones • Krik? Krak! • Breath, Eyes, Memory
Vine Deloria, Jr. (1933 - )
• Behind the Trail of Broken Treaties: An Indian Declaration of Independence • God is Red • Red Earth, White Lies • Custer Died for Your Sins
Frederick Douglass (1818 - 1895)
• Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave • My Bondage and My Freedom • Life and Times of Frederick Douglass
Ralph Ellison (1914 - 1994)
• Invisible Man • Shadow and Act • Juneteeth
Olaudah Equiano (1745 - 1797)
• The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vassa the African
Louise Erdrich (1954 - )
• Love Medicine • The Beet Queen • Tracks
Sui Sin Far (1865 - 1914)
• Mrs. Spring Fragrance
Heinz Insu Fenkl (1960 - )
• Memories of My Ghost Brother • Shadow's Bend
Amitav Ghosh (1956 - )
• The Circle of Reason • In an Antique Land • The Calcutta Chromosome
Jessica Hagedorn (1949 - )
• Dogeaters • Mango Tango • Dangerous Music
Linda Hogan (1947 - )
• Mean Spirit • Book of Medicines • Sightings: The Gray Whales' Mysterious Journey • Seeing Through the Sun
• Waimea Summer
Langston Hughes (1902 - 1967)
• The Weary Blues • Scottsboro Limited • Shakespeare in Harlem • Montage of a Dream Deferred • Selected Poems • Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods for Jazz • The Ways of White Folks • Simple Speaks His Mind
Zora Neale Hurston (1891 - 1960)
• Jonah's Gourd Vine • Mules and Men • Their Eyes Were Watching God • Tell My Horse • Mule Bone: A Comedy of Negro Life, with Langston Hughes
David Henry Hwang (1957 - )
• FOB (acronym for Fresh Off the Boat) • M. Butterfly • 1,000 Airplanes on the Roof: A Science Fiction Music Drama
Harriet Jacobs (1813 - 1897)
• Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
Gish Jen (1956 - )
• Mona in the Promised Land • Typical American
Charles Johnson (1948 - )
• Middle Passage • Oxherding Tale • Faith and the Good Thing
Younghill Kang (1903 - 1972)
• East Goes West • The Grass Roof
Nora Keller (1965 - )
• Comfort Woman
Randall Kenan (1963 - )
• A Visitation of Spirits • Let the Dead Bury Their Dead and Other Stories
Maxine Hong Kingston (1940 - )
• The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts • China Men • Hawaii One Summer • Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book
Joy Kogawa (1935 - )
• Obasan • Itsuka • The Rain Ascends
Nella Larsen (1891 - 1964)
• Passing • Quicksand
Audre Lorde (1934 - 1992)
• The Collected Poems Of Audre Lorde • Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches • Zami: A New Spelling of My Name
Toni Morrison (1931 - )
• Paradise • Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination • Jazz • Beloved • Tar Baby • Song of Solomon • Sula • The Bluest Eye
Bharati Mukherjee (1940 - )
• Desirable Daughters • The Holder of the World • Jasmine
Fay Myenne Ng (1957 - )
• Bone
Caryl Phillips (1958 - )
• Cambridge • Crossing the River • The Nature of Blood • The European Tribe • Extravagant Strangers: A Literature of Belonging
Richard Rodriguez (1944 - )
• Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez, An Autobiography • Days of Obligation: An Argument with My Mexican Father
Leslie Marmon Silko (1948 - )
• Yellow Woman • Almanac of the Dead: A Novel • Ceremony • Laguna Woman
Ngugi wa Thiong'o (1938 - )
• A Grain of Wheat • Petals of Blood • Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature
Sojourner Truth (1797? - 1883)
• The Narrative of Sojourner Truth
Velma Wallis (1960 - )
• Raising Ourselves: A Gwich'in Coming of Age Story from the Yukon River • Bird Girl and the Man who Followed the Sun • Two Old Women
James Welch (1940 - )
• Winter in the Blood • Fools Crow
John Edgar Wideman (1941 - )
• Damballah • Hiding Place • Sent for You Yesterday • Philadelphia Fire
Shawn Wong (1949 - )
• American Knees • Homebase: a Novel
Richard Wright (1908 - 1960)
• Native Son • Black Boy • The Long Dream • White Man, Listen!
Zitkala-Sa (1876 - 1938)
• American Indian Stories • Old Indian Legends
Authors by row (from the top)
Row 1: Alexie, Baldwin, Wallis, Kingston, Brooks, Zitkala-Sa, Ali, Lorde
Row 2: Chesnutt, Achebe, Keller, Danticat, Douglass, Ghosh, Hagedorn, Mukherjee
Row 3: Holt, Cisneros, Fenkl, Cao, Bacho, Kenan, Bell
Row 4: Hwang, Jacobs, Hurston, Erdrich, Kogawa, Welch, Rodriguez, Wong
Row 5: Ellison, Alexander, Phillips, Ng, Truth, Castillo, Bulosan, Larsen, Wideman
Row 6: Hughes, Johnson, Silko, Thiong'o, Morrison
Row 7: Jen, Equiano, Deloria, Wright, Hogan, Kang, Sui Sin Far