Black-Eyed Susans and Midnight Birds

This book combines in one volume two now classic short story collections.  The editor has added a new introduction and prefatory material.



"Mary Helen Washington has had a greater impact upon the formation of the canon of Afro-American literature than has any other scholar." --The New York Times Book ReviewRe(Visions): Black Women Writers—Their Texts, Their Readers, Their Critics

Jean Wheeler Smith
Frankie Mae

Paulette Childress White
Alice
The Bird Cage

Toni Morrison
Seemothermotherisverynice

Paule Marshall
Reena

Gwendolyn Books
If You’re Light and Have Long Hair
At the Burns-Coopers’

Gayl Jones
Asylum
Jevata

Louise Meriwether
A Happening in Barbados

Alexis DeVaux
The Riddles of Egypt Brownstone
Remember Him a Outlaw

Frency Hodges
Requiem for Willie Lee

Sherely Anne Williams
Meditaions on History

Alice Walker
A Sudden Trip Home in the Spring
Everyday Use
Advancing Luna and Ida B. Wells

Ntozake Shange
comin to terms
aw, babee, you so pretty

Toni Cade Bambara
Medley
WitchbirdMary Helen Washington is a critic, essayist, anthologist, and English professor at the University of Maryland. Previously she taught at the University of Massachusetts and was a Bunting Fellow at Harvard. She is the editor of numerous anthologies of black writing, including Black-Eyed Susans: Classic Stories by Black Women Writers; Midnight Birds: Stories of Contemporary Black Women Writers; Invented Lives: Narratives of Black Women; and Memory of Kin: Stories of Family by Black Writers.