Contemporary Literature, 1970 to Present
Susanna Kaysen (1945– )
Writer best known for her memoir, Girl, Interrupted (1993), which describes her
experience of being committed to a psychiatric hospital in 1967.
Nora Okja Keller (1965– )
Novelist born in Korea to a Korean mother and a German father. Her Comfort
Woman (1997) and Fox Girl (2002) are the first two works in a planned trilogy.
She is also the coeditor of Intersecting Circles: The Voices of Hapa Women in Poetry
and Prose (1999).
Erica Kennedy (? – )
African American novelist who writes about the fashion and entertainment
industries. Her novel Bling (2004) features a hip-hop mogul, while Feminista
(2009) revised the “chick lit” genre as “sistah lit.”
Maxine Kumin (1925– )
Poet and fiction writer whose poetry collections include Up Country (1972), for
which she won the Pulitzer Prize, and Looking for Luck (1992). She also coau-
thored three children’s books with the poet Anne Sexton.
Ursula K. Le Guin (1929– )
Science-fiction writer who received both the Hugo and Nebula Awards for The
Left Hand of Darkness (1969) and The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia (1974).
She won the National Book Award for The Farthest Shore (1972), part of her
Earthsea Trilogy.
Denise Levertov (1923–1997)
Politically active poet and essayist who was born in England and immigrated to
the United States in 1948. Her poetry collections include Relearning the Alphabet
(1970), Footprints (1972), and A Door in the Hive (1989).
Audre Lorde (1934–1992)
African American poet and essayist whose works of poetry include The First
Cities (1968), Cables to Rage (1970), From a Land Where Other People Live
(1972), New York Head Shop and Museum (1974), The Black Unicorn (1978), The
Cancer Journals (1980), Chosen Poems, Old and New (1982), Our Dead behind
Us (1986), and A Burst of Light (1988), the last of which won a National Book
Award.
Paule Marshall (1929– )
Daughter of immigrants from Barbados who infuses her fiction with African and
Caribbean backgrounds. She is the author of Brown Girl, Brownstones (1959), Soul
Clap Hands and Sing (1961), The Chosen Place, the Timeless People (1969), Praisesong
for the Widow (1983), Reema and Other Short Stories (1983), and Daughters (1991).
Bobbie Ann Mason (1940– )
Fiction writer and literary scholar best known for her fiction, including Shiloh and
Other Stories (1982), In Country (1986), Spence + Lila (1989), Love Life: Stories
(1989), and Feather Crowns (1993).