- Angelou, MayaAuthor of 'I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings'; first African American woman to recite an original poem at a U.S. presidential inauguration1928-2014
- Baldwin, JamesAuthor of 'Go Tell It on the Mountain' and 'The Fire Next Time'; one of the first major Black writers to write openly about homosexuality1924-1987
- Baraka, AmiriPoetry, drama, fiction, and jazz/blues criticism; the play 'Dutchman' (1964), poetry collections 'Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note' (1961) and 'The Dead Lecturer' (1964), and the music history 'Blues People' (1963)1934-2014
- Brooks, GwendolynFirst African American to win a Pulitzer Prize, awarded in 1950 for her poetry collection 'Annie Allen'1917-2000
- Butler, Octavia E.First science fiction writer to receive a MacArthur Fellowship; author of 'Kindred,' one of the first works of science fiction to directly address American slavery1947-2006
- Chesnutt, Charles W.Fiction and essays confronting race, identity, and 'the color line' in the post-Civil War South; short-story collections 'The Conjure Woman' (1899) and 'The Wife of His Youth' (1899) and novels including 'The Marrow of Tradition' (1901)1858-1932
- Clifton, LucillePoetry, memoir, and children's literature; spare, lowercase verse exploring African American experience, family, the body, and resilience; created the 'Everett Anderson' children's series1936-2010
- Coates, Ta-NehisiAuthor of 'Between the World and Me,' winner of the 2015 National Book Award for Nonfiction1975-
- Cullen, CounteeWon widespread acclaim for his debut poetry collection 'Color,' becoming one of the Harlem Renaissance's most celebrated formal poets1903-1946
- Danticat, EdwidgeFiction, short stories, essays, and memoir exploring Haitian and Haitian-American life, migration, memory, and political violence; 'Breath, Eyes, Memory' (1994), 'Krik? Krak!' (1995), 'The Farming of Bones' (1998), and 'Brother, I'm Dying' (2007)1969-present
- Douglass, FrederickAutobiography, oratory, and abolitionist journalism; wrote three autobiographies — most famously 'Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave' (1845), plus 'My Bondage and My Freedom' (1855) and 'Life and Times of Frederick Douglass' (1881) — and founded/edited the abolitionist newspaper 'The North Star'1818-1895
- Dove, RitaPoetry, fiction, drama, and essays; best known for 'Thomas and Beulah' (1986), a poem cycle based on her grandparents' lives set against the Great Migration and the civil rights era1952-present
- Du Bois, W.E.B.Essays, history, sociology, and fiction; author of 'The Souls of Black Folk' (1903), 'Black Reconstruction in America' (1935), and 'The Philadelphia Negro' (1899); long-time editor of the NAACP magazine 'The Crisis'1868-1963
- Dunbar, Paul LaurenceFirst African American poet to achieve national critical and commercial acclaim1872-1906
- Ellison, RalphAuthor of 'Invisible Man,' winner of the 1953 National Book Award1913-1994
- Equiano, OlaudahAutobiography and abolitionist writing; 'The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African' (1789) described his capture in Africa, the Middle Passage, enslavement, and eventual freedomc.1745-1797
- Giovanni, NikkiPoetry, essays, and children's literature; an influential voice of the Black Arts Movement whose work spans race and social justice, family, love, and children's verse1943-2024
- Haley, Alexander Murray PalmerAuthored 'Roots: The Saga of an American Family' and co-authored 'The Autobiography of Malcolm X'; the 1977 television adaptation of 'Roots' drew an estimated 130 to 140 million viewers, among the largest audiences in American television history1921-1992
- Hammon, JupiterFirst African American to publish a literary work in North America1711-c.1806
- Hansberry, LorrainePlaywriting and essays; her play 'A Raisin in the Sun' (1959) dramatized a working-class Black family's struggles with housing discrimination and deferred dreams on Chicago's South Side1930-1965
- Harper, Frances Ellen WatkinsPoetry, fiction, and abolitionist/suffragist writing and oratory; novel 'Iola Leroy' (1892), poetry collections such as 'Poems on Miscellaneous Subjects' (1854), and the widely reprinted poem 'Bury Me in a Free Land'1825-1911
- Horton, George MosesFirst African American to publish a book while still enslaved, and the first to use poetry to publicly protest slaveryc.1797-c.1883
- Hughes, LangstonMost influential and widely celebrated voice of the Harlem Renaissance; among the first African Americans to earn a living solely as a writer1902-1967
- Hurston, Zora NealeAuthor of 'Their Eyes Were Watching God,' a landmark novel exploring Black womanhood in the rural South1891-1960
- Jacobs, HarrietAutobiography and slave narrative; 'Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself' (1861), published under the pseudonym Linda Brent, recounted her enslavement, sexual abuse, seven years hiding in a tiny garret, and escape to freedom1813-1897
- Jemisin, N.K.First Black writer to win a Hugo Award for Best Novel; first author of any background to win three consecutive Hugo Awards for Best Novel1972-
- Johnson, James WeldonPoetry, fiction, anthologies, and songwriting; wrote the lyrics to 'Lift Every Voice and Sing' (the 'Negro National Anthem'), the novel 'The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man' (1912), and the poetry collection 'God's Trombones' (1927); edited 'The Book of American Negro Poetry' (1922)1871-1938
- Larsen, NellaFiction of the Harlem Renaissance; novels 'Quicksand' (1928) and 'Passing' (1929) explored mixed-race identity, racial 'passing,' gender, and class1891-1964
- Lorde, AudrePioneering poet and essayist on race, gender, and sexuality; co-founded Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press1934-1992
- McKay, ClaudeAuthor of 'Home to Harlem,' the first commercially successful novel by a Black writer in the United States1889-1948
- Morrison, ToniFirst Black woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, awarded in 1993; author of 'Beloved,' winner of the 1988 Pulitzer Prize1931-2019
- Reed, IshmaelFiction, poetry, essays, and drama; satirical, genre-bending novels including 'Mumbo Jumbo' (1972), 'The Free-Lance Pallbearers' (1967), and 'Flight to Canada' (1976), and poetry such as 'Conjure' (1972); developed the 'Neo-HooDoo' aesthetic1938-present
- Sanchez, SoniaPoetry, plays, and children's books; experimental verse that fuses blues and musical forms with haiku and tanka and renders Black English on the page; collections include 'Homecoming' (1969) and 'We a BaddDDD People' (1970)1934-present
- Shange, NtozakePlaywriting, poetry, and fiction; created the Obie Award-winning choreopoem 'for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf' (1975) and coined the 'choreopoem' form fusing poetry, dance, music, and song1948-2018
- Tipton-Martin, ToniBecame the first Black food reporter at the Los Angeles Times and first Black food editor of a major newspaper at The Plain Dealer; authored 'The Jemima Code,' which traced two centuries of African American cookbooks and won the James Beard Award for Research and Scholarship despite an agent initially telling her there was no market for the subjectc.1958-
- Toomer, JeanModernist poetry and fiction; his genre-blending masterwork 'Cane' (1923) wove prose, poetry, and drama to portray African American life in the rural South and urban North1894-1967
- Walker, AliceFirst African American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, awarded in 1983 for 'The Color Purple'1944-
- Ward, JesmynFiction and memoir centered on poor Black families and communities on the Mississippi Gulf Coast; novels 'Salvage the Bones' (2011) and 'Sing, Unburied, Sing' (2017) and the memoir 'Men We Reaped' (2013)1977-present
- Wheatley, PhillisFirst African American to publish a book of poetry1753-1784
- Whitehead, ColsonFirst writer to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for two consecutive novels, 'The Underground Railroad' and 'The Nickel Boys'1969-
- Wilson, AugustPlaywriting; created the ten-play 'Pittsburgh Cycle' (Century Cycle), each drama set in a different decade chronicling the 20th-century African American experience1945-2005
- Wright, RichardAuthor of 'Native Son,' the first book by an African American writer selected by the Book-of-the-Month Club1908-1960