Presenter of
the National Book Awards
Subscribe
to our newsletter
Subscribe to our newsletter
Presenter of
the National Book Awards
Subscribe
to our newsletter
The great scholar, W. E. B. Du Bois, once wrote about the Problem of race in America, and what he called “Double Consciousness,” a sensitivity that every African American possesses in order to survive. More about this book >
In 1773, a young, African American woman named Phillis Wheatley published a book of poetry that challenged Western prejudices about African and female intellectual capabilities. Based on fifteen years of archival research, The Age of Phillis, by award-winning writer Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, imagines the life and times of Wheatley: her childhood in the Gambia, West Africa, her life with her white American owners, her friendship with Obour Tanner, and her marriage to the enigmatic John Peters. More about this book >
Honorée Fanonne Jeffers is a fiction writer, poet, and essayist. She is the author of five poetry collections, including The Age of Phillis, which won the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work and was Longlisted for the National Book Award for Poetry and the PEN/Voelcker Award. She contributed to The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks About Race, edited by Jesmyn Ward, and has been published in Kenyon Review, The Iowa Review, and other literary publications. Jeffers was elected into the American Antiquarian Society, whose members include 14 US presidents, and is Critic-at-Large for Kenyon Review. She teaches creative writing and literature at the University of Oklahoma.
(Photo credit: Sydney A. Foster)
no content
