Our Creative Exploration – Novels

Collectively, these novels showcase key figures of African American literature who used creative writing to explore racial identity and systemic oppression. While works of fiction, many are grounded in reality. Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Cage Bird Sings is semi-autobiographical, and Zora Neale Hurston researched extensively to produce Mules and Men, a pioneering collection of African American folklore, blending storytelling and ethnography to preserve the oral traditions and cultural heritage of Black communities. Wright’s Native Son, a work of fiction, attempts to explain the undeniable racial divide in America and the social conditions imposed by a dominant white society.