UVM Libraries Research Guides: English & American Literature : African American Literature: Biography

Biography - Major Sources

Dictionary of Literary Biography This link opens in a new window
This resource is a searchable database of literary biographies written by recognized literary scholars and critics, profiling past and present authors, historians, journalists, screenwriters, publishers, and playwrights worldwide from every era.
Oxford African American Studies Center This link opens in a new window
Portal to full-text information (biographies, encyclopedias, companions, primary sources), images and maps about African Americans, African American life and culture, and Africa and the diaspora. Note: Includes African American National Biography, Black Women in America, 2nd ed, and Dictionary of Caribbean and Afro-Latin American Biography.

African American National Biography by Henry Louis Gates (Editor)
Call Number: REF E 185.96 .A4466 2008 (8 vols)
Covers African American life for almost five centuries, from the arrival of Esteban in Spanish Florida in 1528 to notable black citizens of the present day. *This resource is included in Oxford African American Studies Center (see entry above).

Additional Biography Sources

Literature Resource Center This link opens in a new window
This database contains biographical profiles of significant writers worldwide from all eras and literary genres. It also includes full-length or excerpted literary criticism articles and book reviews from scholarly journals and magazines, book chapters, and reference books. It also includes overviews of literary topics and work overviews (plots, themes, characters).
Columbia Granger's World of Poetry This link opens in a new window
This resource is a searchable database of full-text poems and citations to poems in anthologies by major poets worldwide from all eras. It also contains biographical profiles of poets, poem commentaries, a glossary of poetry terms, and spoken word audio recordings of poems.

Biography in Context Collection of electronic versions of many major print biography Reference Books, with related full-text articles from magazines and newspapers. Search for full-text information on people - both current and historic from all eras and fields of endeavor.
American National Biography
Preeminent scholarly biographical source for noteworthy deceased Americans.

Black Women in America, 2nd ed
Call Number: REF E 185.86 .B542 2005 (3 vols)
*This resource is included in Oxford African American Studies Center .
The Companion to African Literatures
Call Number: REF PR 9340 .C65 2000
A comprehensive introduction and guide to African-authored works, with over 1,000 cross-referenced entries covering classics in African writing, literary genres and movements, biographical details of authors, and wider themes linking African, Afro-Caribbean and Afro-American literatures.

Book-length Biographies

Use the CATQuest Browse Search. Perform a subject search for a person. Click image below (live link!) to be brought to the Browse search function in CATQuest.

In the search box, type the name of the person, last name first (e.g. wright richard)
Click the magnifying glass
Look at the books listed under simply the main subject heading (e.g. wright richard) and the subheading "biography" (if present)