Meditations and Ascension: Black Writers on Writing

Representing conversations from the Eighth National Black Writers Conference in 2006, this collection provides in-depth meditations and analyses of literature by black writers. Reflections on the black experience, the American experience, and a more global experience and worldview are all widely discussed, as well as future trends and ascensions for black literature. Students, teachers, journalists, and other writers will welcome the chance to view parts of the writing process and see inside the heads of prominent black writers. Participants include Marita Golden, Walter Mosley, Ishmael Reed, Herb Boyd, Valerie Boyd, Haki R. Madhubuti, Elizabeth Nunez, Tananarive Due, Valerie Wilson Wesley, Camille Yarbrough, Susan McHenry, and many others.

Brenda M. Greene is a professor of English and the executive director of the Center for Black Literature at Medgar Evers College of the City University of New York. She was the director of the National Black Writers Conference in both 2003 and 2006. She is the coeditor of Defining Ourselves: Black Writers of the Nineties and Rethinking American Literature. She lives in New York City. Fred Beauford is the editor in chief of the Neworld Review and the author of The King of Macy’s, The Rejected American, and The Year Jerry Garcia Died. He lives in Newark, New Jersey.