Marita Golden is an American
novelist,
essayist and a teacher of
writing and
literary for a career that has spanned over twenty years. All of Marita Golden's texts are widely read and used in
college courses. Her
journalism has also appeared in
The New York Times,
The Washington Post,
Essence and
Africa Woman.
Her first book, an
autobiography 'Migrations of the Heart' was the first book to explore from the perspective of an
African-American woman married into an
African family, returning 'home' to Africa.
Her
fiction and
nonfiction works portray the challenging lives of African-American women in
America. The best example of this would be 'A Woman’s Place' published in
1986. This novel follows the lives of three African-American women, from college
friendship into their adult lives. The story is told by alternating
narrators, including friends and family, to tell the story of their challenging lives as being black and also women in the
1960's in America.
Marita has taught at many
universities across America, and has lectured on the topic of
literature,
women's studies,
African-American Studies and African American literature nationally and
internationally.
Her fiction includes:
*Long Distance Life (a best-seller)
*A Woman's Place
*And Do Remember Me
*The Edge of Heaven.
Nonfiction:
*She has edited: Wild Women Don't Wear No Blues: Black Women Writers on Love, Men and Sex
*With writer Susan Shreve, Skin Deep: Black and White Women on Race.
As biographies and essays:
*Migrations of the Heart
*Saving Our Sons: Raising Black Children in a Turbulent World
*A Miracle Everyday: Triumph and Transformation in the Lives of Single Mothers
*Gumbo (Her latest book, published in 2002. Edited by Marita Golden and E. Lynn Harris. Gumbo also includes never before published stories by a number of writers.)
In 1990 she founded and served as the first president of the Washington DC based African American Writers Guild which offers workshops, conferences and a newsletter for African-American writers in the Washington area. In the same year founded the Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Award and Foundation. The prize of $1,000 (first prize) and $500 (second prize) is awarded each spring to the best fiction written by an emerging African-American college writer. It is the only national literary award for African-American college writers of fiction.
Golden currently holds the position of senior writer in the Graduate MFA Creative Writing Program at Virginia Commonwealth University and lives in Mitchellville, Maryland.
Sources, and more information:
http://www.maritagolden.com
http://www.lordly.com/talent/lordly/GoldenMarita.html
http://authors.aalbc.com/marita.htm