This supplement of American Writers, the twelfth, is largely concerned with a range of contemporary writers, poets, and novelists, many of whom have won large and enthusiastic audiences for their work, although criticism has yet to catch up with them. The function of these essays is quite simple: to provide introductory criticism that treats the developing career of each writer in the context of his or her life circumstances. While the essays are not necessarily mini-biographies, they all provide key markers in each life, and they suggest ways in which the books ...
In this fifteenth volume of American Writers, we offer eighteen articles on American writers of fiction, drama (including film, and poetry; they are all accomplished writers who have displayed many of the virtues, yet none of them has yet been featured in this series. These articles should prove helpful to readers who wish to dig more thoroughly into the work of these writers, so that they can see how each—in his or her own way—has added something of great value to American culture.
This supplement brings together a wide range of articles on American writers, most of them contemporary, although a couple of them reach back to neglected, but important, writers from the literary past. Writers from various ethnic and cultural backgrounds have contributed a great deal to contemporary literature, and several of the strongest among writers of fiction are considered in this volume.
Supplement IX is mostly about contemporary writers, many of whom have received little sustained attention from critics. Some of the important writers from the past have already attracted a good deal of sustained attention, and their work is often taught in college courses, but for various reasons their careers have not yet been discussed in American Writers. It is time they were added to the series. The poets included here are well known in the poetry world, and their work has in each case been honored with major literary prizes.
Supplement XVI focuses on contemporary writers of fiction, many of whom have received little sustained attention from critics. We also examine the work of several important writers in the tradition of nonfiction—one of those widely used terms that never seems quite specific enough. A number of classic writers are treated here as well. The critics writing in this collection represent a catholic range of backgrounds and critical approaches, although the baseline for inclusion was that each essay should be accessible to the non-specialist reader or beginning student.
