Joyce Carol Thomas
- Poet
- playwright
- speaker
- author
Stanford University
Bright Shadow
Brown Honey in Broomwheat Tea
The Blacker the Berry
American Book Award
Joyce Carol Thomas (May 25, 1938 – August 13, 2016)[1] was an African-American poet, playwright, motivational speaker, and author of more than 30 children's books.
Background
Thomas was born in Ponca City, Oklahoma, the fifth of nine children in a family of cotton pickers. In 1948 they moved to Tracy, California, to pick vegetables. She learned Spanish from Mexican migrant workers and earned a B.A. in Spanish from San Jose State University. She took night classes in education at Stanford University, while raising four children, and received the master's degree in 1967.[1]
Literary awards
For her 1982 novel Marked by Fire, Thomas won a National Book Award in category Children's Fiction (paperback)[2][a] and an American Book Award. Thomas has been one of three to five finalists for the Coretta Scott King Award thrice, in 1984 for Bright Shadow, in 1994 for Brown Honey in Broomwheat Tea, and in 2009 for The Blacker the Berry. Part of the American Library Association program, the King Award annually recognizes the "most distinguished portrayal of African American experience in literature for children or teens".[3] She also received a New York Times Outstanding Book of the Year Award[clarification needed] and an Outstanding Woman of the 20th Century Award.[clarification needed]
Personal life
Thomas resided in Berkeley, California.[1] She died on August 13, 2016, at the age of 78.[4]
Notes
- ^ Thomas shared the 1982 award for paperback Children's Fiction.
From 1980 to 1983 in National Book Award history there were dual awards for hardcover and paperback books in many categories. Most of the paperback award-winners were reprints, including Paula Fox, A Place Apart (1980), who shared the 1982 Children's Fiction with Thomas. Marked by Fire was one of few paperback originals even among the finalists for paperback awards.
References
- ^ a b c Jennifer Duke-Sylvester, "Joyce Carol Thomas". Tennessee Authors, The University of Tennessee. Archived 2011-01-16. Retrieved 2013-11-24.
- ^ "National Book Awards – 1983". National Book Foundation. Retrieved 2012-02-27.
- ^ "Coretta Scott King Book Award – All Recipients, 1970–Present". American Library Association (ALA).
"About the Coretta Scott King Book Awards". ALA. Retrieved 2013-11-24. - ^ Associated Press (2016-08-20). "Prize-winning author Joyce Carol Thomas dead at 78". suntimes.com. Retrieved 2016-08-21.
External links
- Official website
- Write TV Public Television Interview with Joyce Carol Thomas
- Joyce Carol Thomas at Library of Congress, with 35 library catalog records
- v
- t
- e
- Alta
- Alan Chong Lau
- Bienvenido N. Santos
- Helen Adam
- Lionel Mitchell
- Miguel Algarín
- Nicholasa Mohr
- Peter Blue Cloud
- Robert Kelly
- Rose Drachler
- Susan Howe
- Toni Cade Bambara
- Cecil Brown
- Gary Snyder
- Howard Schwartz/ Mark Podwal
- Imamu Amiri Baraka
- Jesús Colón
- Joseph Bruchac
- Maurice Kenny
- Mei-mei Berssenbrugge
- Miné Okubo
- Paule Marshall
- Ruthanne Lum McCunn / You-shan Tang / Ellen Lai-shan Yeung
- Thomas McGrath
- Venkatesh Kulkarni
- William J. Kennedy
- Angela Jackson
- Arnold Genthe / John Kuo Wei Tchen
- Colleen J. McElroy
- Gary Soto
- Peter Irons
- Keiho Soga / Taisanboku Mori / Sojin Takei / Muin Ozaki
- Louise Erdrich
- Maureen Owen
- May Sarton
- Robert Edward Duncan
- Ron Jones
- Sandra Cisneros
- Sonia Sanchez
- Julia Vinograd
- William Oandasan
- Anna Lee Walters
- Cherríe Moraga / Gloria E. Anzaldúa
- Helen Barolini
- Jeff Hannusch
- Linda Hogan
- Miguel Algarín
- Natasha Borovsky
- Raymond Federman
- Susan Howe
- Terence Winch
- Toshio Mori
- Ai
- Ana Castillo
- Cyn Zarco
- Daniel McGuire
- Dorothy Bryant
- Etheridge Knight
- Gary Giddins
- Harvey Pekar
- James Welch
- John Wieners
- Juan Felipe Herrera
- Lucia Chiavola Birnbaum
- Michael Mayo
- Septima Poinsette Clark / Cynthia Stokes Brown
- Terry McMillan
- Allison Blakely
- Charles Olson
- Daisy Bates
- David Halberstam
- Edward Sanders
- Gerald Vizenor
- Jimmy Santiago Baca
- Kesho Y. Scott / Cherry Muhanji / Egyirba High
- Marlon K. Hom
- Benjamin Hoff
- Ronald Sukenick
- Salvatore La Puma
- Toni Morrison
- Wing Tek Lum / Tek Lum Lum
- Adrienne Kennedy
- Barbara Grizzuti Harrison
- Daniela Gioseffi
- Elizabeth Woody
- Hualing Nieh
- Itabari Njeri
- James M. Freeman
- John C. Walter / J. Raymond Jones
- John Norton
- José Emilio González
- Sergei Kan
- Lloyd A. Thompson
- Martin Bernal
- Michelle T. Clinton / Sesshu Foster
- Miles Davis
- Paula Gunn Allen
- Shirley Geok-lin Lim / Mayumi Tsutakawa / Margarita Donnelly
- Alejandro Murguía
- bell hooks
- Bruce Wright
- Charley Trujillo
- D. H. Melhem
- Deborah Keenan
- Jessica Hagedorn
- John Edgar Wideman
- Joy Harjo
- Karen Tei Yamashita
- Lucia Berlin
- Mary Crow Dog
- Meridel Le Sueur
- Mill Hunk Herald Collective
- Nora Marks Dauenhauer / Richard Dauenhauer
- R. Baxter Miller
- Thomas Centolella
- A'Lelia Perry Bundles
- Art Spiegelman
- Benjamin Alire Sáenz
- Donna J. Haraway
- Fritjof Capra
- José Antonio Burciaga
- Keith Gilyard
- Lucy Thompson
- Norma Field
- Peter Bacho
- Peter Kalifornsky
- Raymond Andrews
- Sandra Scofield
- Sheila Hamanaka
- Stephen R. Fox
- Verlyn Klinkenborg
- William B. Branch / Amiri Baraka / August Wilson
- Asake Bomani / Belvie Rooks
- Christopher Mogil / Peter Woodrow
- Cornel West
- Denise Giardina
- Diane Glancy
- Eugene B. Redmond
- Francisco X. Alarcón
- Gerald Graff
- Jack Beatty
- Leroy V. Quintana
- Katherine Peter
- Nelson George
- Ninotchka Rosca
- Giose Rimanelli
- Eric Drooker
- Graciela Limón
- Gregory J. Reed
- Janet Campbell Hale
- Jill Nelson
- Lawson Fusao Inada
- Nicole Blackman
- Paul Gilroy
- Ronald Takaki
- Rose L. Glickman
- Tino Villanueva
- Virginia L. Kroll
- Abraham Rodriguez
- Herb Boyd / Robert L. Allen
- Denise Chavez
- John Egerton
- John Ross
- Thomas Avena
- Linda Raymond
- Li-Young Lee
- Marianna De Marco Torgovnick
- Marnie Mueller
- Peter Quinn
- Sandra Martz
- Gordon Henry Jr.
- Tricia Rose
- Agate Nesaule
- Arthur Sze
- Chang-Rae Lee
- Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
- E.J. Miller Laino
- Glenn C. Loury
- James W. Loewen
- Joe Sacco / Edward Said
- Kimiko Hahn
- Maria Espinosa
- Robert Viscusi
- Sherman Alexie
- Ron Sakolsky / Fred Weihan Ho
- Stephanie Cowell
- William H. Gass
- Alurista
- Derrick Bell
- Dorothy Barresi
- Guillermo Gómez-Peña
- Louis Owens
- Martín Espada
- Montserrat Fontes
- Noel Ignatiev
- Shirley Geok-lin Lim
- Sunaina Maira
- Thulani Davis
- Tom De Haven
- William M. Banks
- Brenda Knight
- Allison Adelle Hedge Coke
- Angela Y. Davis
- Brenda Marie Osbey
- Don DeLillo
- Jim Barnes
- John A. Williams
- Nancy Rawles
- Nora Okja Keller
- Sandra Benitez
- Scott DeVeaux
- Thomas Lynch
- Alice McDermott
- Anna Linzer
- Brian Ward
- Chiori Santiago
- E. Donald Two-Rivers
- Edwidge Danticat
- Judith Roche / Meg McHutchison
- Gioia Timpanelli
- Gloria Naylor
- James D. Houston
- Jerry Lipka / Gerald V. Mohatt / Ciulistet Group
- Trey Ellis
- Josip Novakovich
- Lauro Flores
- Luís Alberto Urrea
- Nelson George
- Speer Morgan
- Gary Gach
- Chiori Santiago / Judith Lowry