(including American literature) must be consid-
ered as significant, not only because of the body of
established masterpieces, but also because of the
illumination it sheds upon social reality.”
The editors divided their anthology into eight
categories or genres, plus an appendix, including
short stories, novels, poetry, folk literature, drama,
biography, and essays. Consequently, Negro Writing
provided the paradigm for successive anthologies
that continued to value and validate the African-
American literary tradition through the end of
the 20th century, including DARWIN T. TURNER’s
BLACK AMERICAN LITERATURE: ESSAYS, POETRY, FIC-
TION, DRAMA (1970), Arthur P. Davis and SAUNDERS
REDDING’s CAVALCADE: NEGRO AMERICAN WRITING
FROM 1760 TO THE PRESENT (1971), RICHARD BARKS-
DALE and Keneth Kinnamon’s BLACK WRITERS OF
AMERICA: A COMPREHENSIVE ANTHOLOGY (1972),
Patricia Liggins Hill’s CALL AND RESPONSE: THE
RIVERSIDE ANTHOLOGY OF THE AFRICAN AMERICAN
LITERARY TRADITION (1998) and HENRY L. GATES,
JR. and NELLIE Y. MCKAY’s The Norton Anthology of
African-American Literature (1997).
Wilfred D. SamuelsNelson, Jill (1952– )
Freelance journalist, novelist, and lecturer Jill Nel-
son was born June 14, 1952, in New York City to
Stanley Earl Nelson, a dentist, and A’Lelia Ransom
Nelson, a librarian. She received a B.A. from the
City College of the City University of New York in
1977 and an M.S. degree from the Columbia School
of Journalism in 1980. In 1986, Nelson became the
first black woman to write for The Washington
Post’s Sunday Magazine and was named Washing-
ton, D.C., Journalist of the Year for her work there.
She was an adjunct lecturer at City College of New
York (1982) and Hunter College at City University
of New York (1983) and a professor of journalism
at the City College of New York (1998–2003).
After over two decades of writing journalism
and nonfiction, Nelson began writing fiction. Re-
flecting on her experience, she states, “it was a true
pleasure to simply be able to let my imagination
take my words as far out as I wanted to go” (Nel-
son). Citing as her literary mentors JAMES BALDWIN,
TONI MORRISON, Barbara Kingsolver, Leslie Mar-
mon Silko, Gore Vidal, JOHN A. WILLIAMS, PEARL
CLEAGE, and Ian McEwan, Nelson has written two
memoirs and a novel and edited an anthology.
Nelson’s best-selling memoir, Volunteer Slav-
ery: My Authentic Negro Experience (1993), won an
American Book Award. Reminiscent of NATHAN J.
MCCALL’s Makes Me Wanna Holler: A Young Black
Man in America (1994) and GWENDOLYN M. PARK-
ER’s Trespassing: My Sojourn in the Halls of Privi-
lege (1997), Volunteer Slavery chronicles Nelson’s
four years of experiences in the white, male-dom-
inated world of corporate politics at The Wash-
ington Post. It further details her journey from a
middle-class childhood to near poverty, divorce
and single motherhood, a few bad love affairs, and
a nervous breakdown.
Straight, No Chaser (1997), Nelson’s second
book of nonfiction, combines autobiography, po-
litical analysis, and self-help to state boldly what
seems to be the problem with the African-Amer-
ican community at the turn of the new century.
Writing for the New York Times Book Review,
BEVERLY GUY-SHETFALL noted that Nelson does a
superb job “melding together... hard-hitting, in-
your-face writing that says in no uncertain terms:
Here’s my truth; deal with it.”
In her debut novel, Sexual Healing (2003), Nel-
son, through her characters, candidly discusses
sex, politics, race, religion, and writing. Though
humorous, it is “a compelling narrative,” with bit-
ing social commentary about middle- and upper-
class black America. Set in Reno, Nevada, where
prostitution thrives, Lydia Beaucoup and Acey
Allen, two clever, feisty, financially independent
professional black women in their 40s, decide to
open a discreet brothel called “Sisters’ Spa” where
women can have their sexual needs met. The result
is a solid friendship between women who eventu-
ally take control of their own sexuality and their
lives in a world where they have been exploited
and oppressed.
Nelson is also the editor of the anthology Po-
lice Brutality (1999), a pioneer work fueled by the
shooting of unarmed and innocent Amadou Diallo
at the hands of New York City police officers. MostNelson, Jill 393