African American Authors

The richness of America’s diverse cultural heritage is highlighted through the works of these African American authors. You are encouraged to explore these writers at a County of Los Angeles Public Library.

Find more reading suggestions at Books & More.

Featured Authors

Authors A-Z

• Maya Angelou
• James Baldwin
• Amiri Imamu Baraka
• Gwendolyn Brooks
• Octavia E. Butler
• Bebe Moore Campbell
• Charles W. Chesnutt
• Alice Childress
• Wanda Coleman
• J. California Cooper
• Countee Cullen
• Michael Datcher
• Samuel R. Delany
• Eric Jerome Dickey
• Frederick Douglass
• Rita Dove
• W.E.B. Du Bois
• Paul Laurence Dunbar
• Michael Eric Dyson
• Ralph Ellison
• Antwone Quenton Fisher
• John Hope Franklin
• Ernest J. Gaines
• Henry Louis Gates
• Nikki Giovanni
• Alex Haley
• Lorraine Hansberry
• Frances Watkins Harper

• Gar Anthony Haywood
• E. Lynn Harris
• Chester B. Himes
• bell hooks
• Langston Huges
• Zora Neale Hurston
• James Weldon Johnson
• June Jordan
• Julius Lester
• Audre Lorde
• Claude McKay
• Terry McMillan
• Tony Morrison
• Walter Mosley
• Gloria Naylor
• Ishmael Reed
• Sonia Sanchez
• Ntozake Shange
• Tavis Smiley
• Omar Tyree
• Alice Walker
• Valerie Wilson Wesley
• Cornel West
• Dorothy West
• Phillis Wheatley
• John Edgar Wideman
• August Wilson
• Paula Woods
• Richard Wright

Compiled by Black Resource Center Librarian, Updated 1/2016