American Writers List

The following is a list of writers from which you may choose for your independent reading project. Your teacher may also suggest others for your consideration. Be aware that the work of some contemporary writers may contain some mature themes.

FICTION
Peter Abrahams James Agee Rudolfo A. Anaya Sherwood Anderson Isaac Asimov James Baldwin Toni Cade Bambara John Barth Saul Bellow Stephen Vincent Benet Ambrose Bierce Arna Bontemps Ray Bradbury Pearl Buck Octavia Butler Truman Capote Raymond Carver Willa Cather John Cheever Charles W. Chestnutt Kate Chopin Sandra Cisneros Eugenia W. Collier James Fenimore Cooper Stephen Crane Rebecca Harding Davis Joan Didion John Dos Passos Theodore Dreiser Ralph Ellison William Faulkner Rudolph Fisher F. Scott Fitzgerald Ernest Gaines Ernesto Galarza John Gardner Henry Louis Gates Ellen Glasgow Virginia Hamilton	Bret Harte Nathaniel Hawthorne Robert Heinlein Joseph Heller Ernest Hemingway Chester Himes Merle Hodge Langston Hughes Zora Neale Hurston John Irving Washington Irving Shirley Jackson Henry James William Melvin Kelley Jamaica Kincaid Barbara Kingsolver Maxine Hong Kingston Ring Lardner Camara Laye Ursula LeGuin Sinclair Lewis Jack London Bernard Malamud Norman Mailer Paule Marshall James Matthews Carson McCullers Reginald McKnight Herman Melville James Michener N. Scott Momaday Toni Morrison Gloria Naylor Joyce Carol Oates Tim O'Brien Flannery O'Connor Diane Oliver Tillie Olsen Cynthia Ozick		Ntozake Shange Dorothy Parker Walker Percy Edgar Allan Poe Katherine Anne Porter Ted Poston Chaim Potok Reynolds Price Ishmael Reed Adrienne Rich Richard Rodriguez Philip Roth J. D. Salinger William Saroyan Leslie M. Silko Upton Sinclair Isaac Bashevis Singer John Steinbeck Jesse Stuart William Styron Amy Tan James Thurber Amos Tutuola Mark Twain Anne Tyler John Updike Kurt Vonnegut Alice Walker Robert Penn Warren Ida B. Wells Eudora Welty Dorothy West Nathaneal West John Edgar Wideman Thomas Wolfe Tobias Wolfe Herman Wouk Richard Wright
DRAMA
Edward Albee Maxwell Anderson Alice Childress Susan Glaspell Lorraine Hansberry Lillian Hellman	William Inge Adrienne Kennedy Arthur Miller Clifford Odets Eugene O'Neill		Anna Deavere Smith Thornton Wilder Tennessee Williams August Wilson Lanford Wilson
NONFICTION
Maya Angelou James Baldwin* Benjamin Banneker Robert Bly William Bradford William Byrd Chief Joseph John Ciardi Michel-Guillaume Jean de Crevecoeur Countee Cullen Joan Didion Annie Dillard John Dos Passos* Frederick Douglass W. E. B. Du Bois Jonathan Edwards	Ralph Ellison* Ralph Waldo Emerson Nora Ephron Olaudah Equiano William Faulkner* Benjamin Franklin Margaret Fuller Paul Fussell Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Rolando R. Hinojosa-Smith* Patrick Henry Thomas Jefferson Martin Luther King, Jr. Maxine Hong Kingston Sarah Kemble Knight Lewis Lapham		Robert E. Lee Abraham Lincoln Malcolm X Thomas Paine S. J. Perelman Ishmael Reed Richard Rodriguez Arthur Schlesinger John Smith Susan Sontag Henry David Thoreau Gore Vidal Booker T. Washington Cornel West Dorothy West Tom Wolfe Richard Wright Malcolm X
POETRY
W. H. Auden Amiri Baraka John Berryman Elizabeth Bishop Arna Bontemps Anne Bradstreet Gwendolyn Brooks Sterling A. Brown William Cullen Bryant Stephen Crane e e cummings James Dickey Emily Dickinson Birago Diop Rita Dove W. E. B. Du Bois Paul Lawrence Dunbar Richard Eberhart T. S. Eliot Ralph Waldo Emerson Mari Evans Julia Fields Robert Frost Rodolfo Gonzales Robert Hayden Safiya Henderson	Oliver Wendell Holmes Langston Hughes Randall Jarrell Robinson Jeffers James Weldon Johnson Sidney Lanier Denise Levertov Henry Wadsworth Lonfgellow James Russell Lowell Robert Lowell Archibald Macleish Edgar Lee Masters Claude McKay James Merrill Edna St. Vincent Milay Marianne Moore Ogden Nash Americo Paredes Sylvia Plath Edgar Allan Poe Ezra Pound Dudley Randall John Crowe Ransom Ishmael Reed Adrienne Rich		Edwin Arlington Robinson Theodore Roethke Sonia Sanchez Carl Sandburg Leopold Sedar Senghor Anne Sexton Ntozake Shange Karl Shapiro Leslie Marmon Silko William Stafford Wallace Stevens Edward Taylor Henry Timrod Jean Toomer Sojourner Truth Jose Garcia Villa Derek Walcott Alice Walker Margaret Walker Robert Penn Warren Phyllis Wheatley Walt Whitman John Greenleaf Whittier Richard Wilbur William Carlos Williams Al Young

*indicates writers who are traditionally considered fiction writers, but who have also contributed nonfiction pieces

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Last update: July 2003