Women of Color Women of Word--African American --Female Playwrights--Critical Resources

women of color women of words

critical resources

This is an alphabetical listing of resources which contain critical as well as biographical information about the writers featured in this site. Please consult the individual writers' pages for the titles which mention that playwright specifically. Books marked with the Amazon.com logo

or book jacket are available for sale; just click on the link to go to their page at the Amazon.com site.

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African-American Almanac. Gale Research, 1994.
African American Encyclopedia. Michael W. Williams (Ed.). Marshall Cavendish Corp., 1993.
African American Theatre: An Historical and Critical Analysis. Samuel A. Hay. Cambridge University Press, 1994.
African American Women: A Biographical Dictionary. Dorothy C. Salem (Ed.). Garland, 1993.
African American Women Playwrights: A Research Guide. Christy Gaven (Ed.). Garland, 1999.
African American Writers: Profiles of Their Lives and Works from the 1700s to the Present. Valerie Smith, Lea Baechler, and A. Walton, eds. Collier Books, 1993.
Afro-American Literature: Drama. Houghton Mifflin, 1970.
Afro-American Poetry and Drama, 17760-1975. Genevieve Fabre. Gale Research, 1979.
Afro-American Women Writers, 1746-1933: An Anthology and Critical Guide. Ann Allen Shockley (Ed.). G.K. Hall, 1988.
Afro-American Writers After 1955. Thadious M. Davis and Trudier Harris (Eds.). Gale Research, 1985.
All the Women are White, All the Blacks are Men, But Some of Us are Brave: Black Women's Studies. Gloria T. Hull, Patricia Bell Scott, and Barbara Smith (Eds.). The Feminist Press, 1982.
American Black Women in the Arts and Social Sciences: A Bibliographic Survey. Ora Williams. Scarecrow Press, 1994.
American Drama Since World War II. Gerald Weales. Harcourt, Brace, and World, 1962.
American Literature: A Study and Research Guide. Lewis Leary. St. Martin's Press, 1976.
The American Negro Reference Book. John P. Davis. Prentice-Hall, 1966.
American Plays and Playwrights of the Contemporary Theatre. Allan Lewis. Crown, 1965.
American Playwrights Since 1945: A Guide to Scholarship, Criticism, and Performances. Greenwood, 1989.
American Women Dramatists of the Twentieth Century: A Bibliography. Brenda Coven. Scarecrow, 1982.
The American Woman Playwright: A View of Criticism and Characterization. Judith Olauson. Whitson, 1981.
American Women Playwrights, 1900-1950. Yvonne Shafer. Peter Lang Publishing, 1995.
A Bibliographical Guide to African-American Women Writers. Casper LeRoy Jordan (Compiler). Greenwood Press, 1993.
Black American Playwrights: 1800 to the Present: A Bibliography. Esther Spring Arata and Nicholas John Rotoli. Scarecrow Press, 1976.
Black American Women Poets and Dramatists. Harold Bloom, ed. Chelsea House, 1996.
Black American Writers Past and Present: A Biographical and Bibliographical Dictionary. Teressa Gunnels Rich, Carol Fairbanks Myers, and Esther Spring Arata. Scarecrow Press, 1975.
Black Drama: An Anthology. William Brasmer and Dominick Consolo (Eds). Charles E. Merrill, 1990.
Black Drama in America: An Anthology. Darwin T. Turner (Ed.). Howard University Press, 1994.
Black Drama: The Story of the American Negro in the Theatre. Loften Mitchell. Hawthorn Books, 1967.
Black Female Playwrights: An Anthology of Plays before 1950. Kathy A. Perkins (Ed). Indiana University Press, 1989.
Black Images in the American Theatre. Leonard C. Archer. Pageant-Poseidon, 1973.
Black Playwrights, 1823-1977: An Annotated Bibliography of Plays. James V. Hatch and Omanii Abdullah (Eds). R. R. Bowker Company, 1977.
Black Poets of the United States. Jean Wagner. University of Illinois Press, 1973.
Black Theatre Directory. Addell Austin Anderson (Ed.). Black Theatre Network, 1993.
Black Theatre in America. James Haskins. Thomas Crowell, 1982.
Black Theatre in the 1960's and 1970s. Mance Williams. Greenwood, 1985.
Black Theatre, USA: Forty-Five Plays by American Negroes, 1847-1974. James V. Hatch. Free Press, 1974.
Black Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia. Darlene Clark Hine (Ed.). Carlson Pub, 1993.
Black Women Writers (1950): A Critical Evaluation. Marti Evans (Ed). Doubleday-Anchor, 1984.
Black Women Writers at Work. Claudia Tate (Ed). Continuum, 1983.
Black Writers: A Selection of Sketches from Contemporary Author. Sharon Malinowski (Ed). Gale, 1993.
Broadside Memories: Poets I Have Known. Dudley Randall. Broadside Press, 1975.
Broken Silences: Interviews with Black and White Women Writers. Shirley M. Jordan. Rutgers University Press, 1993.
But Some of Us are Brave: Black Women's Studies. Gloria T. Hull, P.B. Scott, and Barbara Smith, eds. Feminist Press, 1982.
The Cambridge Companion to American Women Playwrights. Brenda Murphy, ed. Cambridge University Press, 1999.
Children's Literature Review, v.14. Gale, 1988.
Children's Novels and the Movies. Douglas Street (Ed). Ungar, 1983.
Color, Sex, and Poetry: Three Women Writers of the Harlem Renaissance. Gloria T. Hull. Indiana University Press, 1987.
Confrontation and Commitment: A Study of Contemporary American Drama. C.W.E. Bigsby, ed. University of Missouri Press, 1969.
Contemporary African American Female Playwrights. Dana A. Williams. Greenwood Publishing, 1998.
Contemporary Authors. Gale, 1991.
Contemporary Black American Playwrights and Their Plays: A Biographical Dictionary and Dramatic Index. Bernard L. Peterson (Ed). Greenwood Press, 1988.
Contemporary Black Biography. Barbara Carlisle Bigelow (Ed). Gale, 1994.
Contemporary Black Drama. Clinton Oliver and Stephanie Sills (Ed). Charles Scribners, 1971.
Contemporary Dramatists. Thomas Riggs, editor. St. James Press, 1999.
Contemporary Literary Criticism, v.5, v.8, v.25, v.38, v.86. Gale, 1976.
Contemporary Plays by Women of Color. Kathy A. Perkins and Roberta Uno (Eds.) Routledge Press, 1995.
Contemporary Theatre, Film, and Television. Gale, 1984-.
Contemporary Women Dramatists. K.A. Berney, editor. St. James Press, 1994.
Conversations with Toni Morrison. Danille Taylor-Guthrie, ed. University Press of Mississippi, 1994.
The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual. Harold Cruse. William Monow and Co, 1984.
Current Biography. H. W. Wilson, 1946.
The Curtain and the Veil-Strategies in Black Drama. Keyssar, Helene. B. Franklin, 1981.
Deadly Triplets: A Theatre Mystery and Journal. Adrienne Kennedy. University of Minnesota Press, 1990.
Dictionary of Literary Biography v.7: Twentieth-Century American Dramatists. Gale, 1981.
Dictionary of Literary Biography v.38: Afro-American Writers After 1955: Dramatists and Prose Writers. Thadious M. Davis and Trudier Harris (Eds). Gale, 1985.
Dictionary of Literary biography, v.41: Afro-American Poets Since 1955. Gale, 1985.
Dictionary of the Black Theatre. Allen Woll. Greenwood Press, 1983.
Dictionary of Twentieth Century Culture v. 5: African American Culture. Sndar Adell, editor. Gale, 1996.
Directory of Blacks in the Performing Arts. Edward Mapp. Scarecrow Press, 1990.
Dissertations Concerning Black Theatre. Rhonnie Washington (Ed.). Black Theatre Network, 1992.
Diving Deep and Surfacing: Women Writers on Spiritual Quest. Carol P. Christ. Beacon Press, 1980.
Drama Criticism, v.4. Gale, 1991.
Drumbeats, Masks and Metaphors: Contemporary Afro-American Theatre. Genevieve Fabre. Harvard University Press, 1983.
Drumvoices: The Mission of Afro-American Poetry, A Critical History. Eugene B. Redmon. Anchor, 1976.
Early Black American Playwrights and Dramatic Writers: A Biographical Directory and Catalog of Plays, Films, and Broadcasting Scripts. Bernard L. Peterson. Greenwood Press, 1990.
Encyclopedia of African American Culture and History v.2 Jack Salzman, editor. Simon and Schuster MacMillan, 1995.
Epic Lives: One Hundred Black Women Who Made a Difference. Jessie C. Smith, ed. Visible Ink Press, 1993.
Essays on Contemporary American Drama. Hedwig Bock and Albert Wertheim, eds. M. Hueber, 1981.
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Facts On File Encyclopedia of Black Women in America: Theater Arts and Entertainment (Vol. 9). Darlene Clark Hine, ed. Facts on File, 1997.
Female Dramatist: Profiles of Women Playwrights from the Middle Ages to Contemporary Times. Elaine T. Partnow with Lesley Anne Hyatt. Facts on File, 1998.
Feminine Focus: The New Women Playwrights. Enoch Brater, ed. Oxford University Press, 1989.
Feminism and Theatre. Sue-Ellen Case. Methuen, 1988.
Feminism, Bakhtin, and the Dialogic. Dale M. Bauer and Susan Jaret McKinstry, ed. State University of New York Press, 1988.
Feminist Theatre and Theory. Helene Keyssar, ed. St. Martin's, 1966.
Fifty More Contemporary One-Act Plays. Frank Shay. D. Appleton and Company, 1928.
The Folk Roots of Contemporary Afro-American Poetry. Bernard W. Bell. Broadside Press, 1974.
From Stereotype to Metaphor: The Jew in Contemporary Drama. Ellen Schiff. State University of New York Press, 1982.
From the Dark Tower: Afro-American Writers, 1900-1960.
Funnywomen: American Comediennes 1860-1985. Mary Unterbrink. McFarland and Co., 1987.
Give Us Each Day: The Diary of Alice Dunbar-Nelson. Gloria T. Hull (Ed.). W.W. Horton, 1984.
Great Women Writers: The Lives and Works of 135 of the World's Most Important Women Writers from Antiquity to the Present. Hale, 1994. Arthur P. Davis. Howard University Press, 1974.
A Guide to Critical Reviews: Part I: American Drama. James M. Salem. Scarecrow press, 1984.
Hansberry's Drama: Committment Amid Complexity. Steven R. Carter. University of Illinois Press, 1991.
Harlem Renaissance and Beyond: 100 Black Women Writers. Lorraine E. Roses and Ruth E. Randolph (Eds.). Harvard University Press, 1997 (paperback reprint).
Hollywood Baby Boomers. James Robert Parrish and Don Stanler. Garland, 1992.
Ijala: Sonia Sanchez and the African Poetic Tradition. Joyce Ann Joyce. Third World Press, 1996.
In Memory and Spirit of Frances, Zora, and Lorraine: Essays and Interviews on Black Women and Writing. Juliette Bowles, ed. Howard University, 1979.
International Dictionary of Film and Filmmakers v.3 Amy L. Unterburger, editor. St. James Press, 1997.
In the Vernacular: Interviews at Yale with Sculptures of Culture. Melissa Biggs, ed. McFarland & Co., 1991.
Intersecting Boundaries: The Theatre of Adrienne Kennedy. Paul K. Bryant-Jackson. University of Minnesota Press, 1992.
Interviews with Contemporary Women Playwrights. Kathleen Besko and Rachel Koenig. Beech Tree Books, 1987.
The Jumping-off Place: American Drama in the 1960s: From Broadway to Off-Off Broadway to Happenings. Gerald Weales. Macmillan, 1969.
Kunta Drama: Plays of the African Continuum. Paul Carter Harrison (Ed). Grove Press, 1973.
Literature for Today's Young Adults. Kenneth L. Donelson and Allan Pace Nilson. Scott, Foresman, 1980.
Living Black American Authors: A Biographical Directory. Ann Allen Shockley and Sue P. Chandler. R. R. Bowker, 1973.
Lorraine Hansberry. Anne Cheney. Twayne Publishers, 1984.
Lorraine Hansberry in Her Own Words (To Be Young, Gifted, and Black). Lorraine Hansberry. Vintage Books, 1995.
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Major Twentieth Century Writers: A Selection of Sketches from Contemporary Authors. Gale Research, 1991.
Making a Spectacle: Feminist Essays on Contemporary Women's Theatre. Lynda Hart, ed. University of Michigan Press, 1989.
Mammies No More: The Changing Image of Black Women on Stage and Screen. Lisa M. Anderson. Rowman and Littlefield. 1997.
Masterpieces of African-American Literature. Frank Magill (Ed). HarperCollins, 1992.
Masterplots II - African American Literature Series. Frank Magill (Ed). Salem Press, 1994.
Modern American Drama: The Female Canon. June Schlueter, ed. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1990.
Modern Black Poets: A Collection of Critical Essays. Donald B. Gibson (Ed). Prentice-Hall, 1973.
Modern Black Writers: A Library of Literary Criticism v.1. Michael Popkin, ed. Frederick Ungar, 1978.
Modern Drama: The Female Canon. June Schlueter. Farleigh Dickenson University, 1990.
Moon Marked and Touched by Sun. Sydne Mahone. Theatre Communications Group, 1994.
Negro Author, HIs Development in America to 1900. Vernon Loggins. Kennikat Press, 1964.
The Negro Genius. Benjamin G. Brawley. Dodd, Mead, 1937.
Negro History in Thirteen Plays. Willis Richardson and May Miller. Associated Publishers, 1933.
The Negro in Literature and Art. Benjamin G. Brawley. Duffield and Company, 1930.
Negro Playwrights in the American Theatre, 1925-195. Doris Abramson. Columbia University Press, 1969.
Negro Poets and Their Poems. Robert T. Kerlin. Associated Publisher, 1923.
New Black Playwrights. William Couch, Jr. (Ed). Louisiana State University Press, 1968.
New Plays for the Black Theatre. Woodie King, Jr. (Ed). Third World Press, 1989.
Newsmakers v.3. Gale Research, 1993.
The New Women's Theatre: Ten Plays by Contemporary American Women. Honor Moore. Vintae Books, 1977.
Nine Plays by Black Women. Margaret B. Wilkerson. New American Library, 1986.
Notable American Women 1660-1950: A Biographical Dictionary. Edward t. James (Ed.). Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1971.
Notable Black American Women Books I-II. Jessie Carney Smith (Ed). Gale, 1996.
Notable Women in American Theatre: A Biographical Dictionary. Alice Robinson, Vera M. Roberts, and Milly Barranger, eds. Greenwood, 1989.
Ntozake Shange: A Critical Study of the Plays. Neal A. Lester. Garland Publishing Inc., 1995.
1001 Things Everyone Should Know about African American History. Jeffrey C. Stewart. Doubleday, 1996.
Oxford Companion to African American Literature. William L. Andrews et al. (Eds). Oxford University Press, 1997.
Oxford Companion to Women's Writings in the United States. Cathy N. Davidson and Linda Wagner-Martin (Eds.). Oxford University Press, 1995.
People Who Led to My Plays. Adrienne Kennedy. Knopf, 1987.
Plays of Negro Life. Alain LeRoy Locke and Montgomery Gregory (Eds). Harper, 1927.
The Playwright's Art: Conversations iwth Contemporary American Dramatists. Jackson Bryer, ed. Rutgers University Press, 1995.
Reading Black, Reading Feminist. Henry L. Gates, Jr., ed. Meridian, 1990.
Reference Library of Black America. L. Mpho Mabunda (Ed.). Gale Resarch, 1997.
Render Me My Song: African-American Women Writers From Slavery to the Present. Sandi Russell. St. Martin's Press, 1990.
Roots of African-American Drama. L. Hamalian and J. V. Hatch. Wayne State University Press, 1991.
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The Second Harlem Renaissance: Essays in Black Criticism. C. W. E. Bigsby (Ed). Greenwood Press, 1980.
See No Evil: Prefaces, Essays & Accounts. Ntozake Shange. Momo's Press, 1983.
Shadowed Dreams: Women's Poetry of the Harlem Renaissance. Maureen Honey, ed. Rutgers University Press, 1989.
Speaking on Stage: Interviews with Contemporary American Playwrights. Philip C. Kolin and Colby H. Kullman, eds. University of Alabama, 1996.
Stages: The Fifty-Year Childhood of the American Theatre. Emory Lewis. Prentice-Hall, 1969.
Staging Difference: Cultural Pluralism in American Theatre and Drama. Marc Maufort. Peter Lang, 1995.
Studies in Black Literature. Department of English, Mary Washington College, 1923.
Teaching American Ethnic Literatures: Nineteen Essays. John R. Maitino and David R. Peck, eds. University of New Mexico Press, 1996.
Theatre and Feminist Aesthetics. Karen Laughlin and Catherine Schuler, eds. Farleigh Dickinson University Press, 1995.
Theatre at the Crossroads: Plays and Playwrights of the Mid-Century American Stage. John Gassner. Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1960.
Their Place on the Stage: Black Women Playwrights in America. Elizabeth Brown-Guillory. Greenwood Press, 1988.
They Found a Way: Lorraine Hansberry. Catherine Scheader. Children's Press, 1978.
To Be Young, Gifted and Black: Lorraine Hansberry in Her Own Words. Lorraine Hansberry. New American Library, 1987.
Twentieth Century American Dramatists. John MacNicholas (Ed.). Gale Research, 1981.
Understanding Contemporary American Drama. William Herman. University of South Carolina Press, 1987.
Uneasy Stages: A Chronicle of the New York Theatre, 1963-1973. John Simon. Random House, 1975.
Voices of the Black Theatre. Loften Mitchell (Ed). James White, 1975.
We a BaddDDD People. Sonia Sanchez (Ed). Broadside Press, 1970.
Whoopi Goldberg: Her Journey from Poverty to Megastardom. James Parrish. Birch Lane Press, 1997.
Who's Who Among African Americans. Gale Resarch, 1996.
Women in American Theatre: Careers, Images, Movements: An Illustrated Anthology and Sourcebook. Helen K. Chinoy. Crown Publishers, 1981.
Women Playwrights of Diversity. Jane T. Peterson and Suzanne Bennett. Greenwood Press, 1997.
Women Poets of the World. Joanna Bankier and Dierdre Lashgari (Eds). Macmillan, 1983.
Women Writers and the City: Essays in Feminist Literary Criticism. Susan Merrill Squier (Ed). University of Tennessee Press, 1984.
The Work of Vinnette Carroll, an African-American Theatre Artist. Calvin A. McClinton. Edwin Mellen Press, 1999.
Works of Lorraine Hansberry: A Critical Commentary. Elizabeth C. Phillips. Monarch Press, 1973.
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This site Female Identity in Twentieth-Century African-American Plays consists of an annotated bibliography of plays and critical works.