Anita Cornwell
Anita Cornwell | |
|---|---|
| Born | September 23, 1923 |
| Notable work | Black Lesbian in White America (1983) |
Anita Cornwell (born September 23, 1923)[1] is an American lesbian feminist author. In 1983 she wrote the first collection of essays by an African-American lesbian, Black Lesbian in White America.[2]
Biography
Born in Greenwood, South Carolina, Cornwell moved to Pennsylvania at the age of 16, living first in Yeadon with her aunt, then in Philadelphia with her mother,[1] who moved north when Cornwell was aged 18. Cornwell has one sibling, an older brother.[3] She graduated from Temple University with a B.S. in journalism and the social sciences in 1948.[1][4] She worked as a journalist for local newspapers and a clerical worker for government agencies.[1]
Cornwell's early writings, published in The Ladder and The Negro Digest in the 1950s, were among the first to identify the author as a black lesbian,[5] and other publications where her work has appeared include Feminist Review, Labyrinth, National Leader, and the Los Angeles Free Press.
Published on October 1, 1983, Cornwell's first book Black Lesbian in White America, which includes her essays and an interview with activist Audre Lorde, is widely noted as the first collection of essays by a black lesbian.
Cornwell was honored by the Annual Lambda Literary Festival, which was held in Philadelphia in 2000.[2]
Bibliography
- Black Lesbian in White America (essays, Naiad Press, 1983)[6]
- The Girls of Summer (young-adult novel, 1989)[7]
References
- ^ a b c d Angela Bowen (2000). Bonnie Zimmerman (ed.). Lesbian Histories and Cultures: an Encyclopedia. Taylor & Francis. pp. 203–204. ISBN 0-8153-1920-7.
- ^ a b Nickels, Thom (2002). Gay and lesbian Philadelphia. Arcadia Publishing. p. 74. ISBN 0-7385-1000-9.
- ^ "Anita Cornwell, October 6, 1993 · Philadelphia LGBT History Project · OutHistory.org: It's About Time". outhistory.org. Archived from the original on June 3, 2019. Retrieved November 21, 2019.
- ^ "Anita R. Cornwell". The Negro Digest. Johnson Publishing Company. November 1966. p. 22. Retrieved January 28, 2010.
- ^ Mason, Janet. "Anita Cornwell: Remembrance of things present".
- ^ Cornwell, Anita (1983). Black lesbian in white America (First ed.). Tallahassee, Florida. ISBN 0-930044-41-X. OCLC 8907420.
- ^ Cornwell, Anita (1989). The girls of summer. Kelly Caines. Berkeley, CA.: New Seed Press. ISBN 0-938678-11-6. OCLC 21148579.
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- 1923 births
- African-American women writers
- African-American writers
- American feminist writers
- African-American feminists
- LGBT African Americans
- Lesbian feminists
- American lesbian writers
- LGBT rights activists from the United States
- LGBT people from South Carolina
- Living people
- Temple University alumni
- Political activists from Pennsylvania
- Writers from Philadelphia
- People from Greenwood, South Carolina
- 21st-century African-American people
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- 20th-century African-American people
- 21st-century LGBT people
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- 2023 deaths