African-American Authors for YAs -------------------------------- compiled by echoya1@lapl.org, November 1999 from contributions to YALSA-BK Since the patron particularly wanted male authors, here are more for your list: BALDWIN, JAMES (if the reader is older YA or advanced reader) COOPER, CLARENCE, Jr DUMAS, ALEXANDRE The Three Musketeers ELLISON, RALPH Invisible Man GREENLEE, SAM The Spook Who Sat By The Door HIMES, CHESTER (great mysteries & detective novels) HUGHES, LANGSTON (among the best of 20th c poetry) JEFFERSON, ROLAND S. The School on 103rd Street LESTER, JULIUS To Be A Slave; Long Journey Home; + many more SIMMONS, HERBERT Corner Boy MOWRY, JESS Way Past Cool; Babylon Boyz; Bones Become Flowers THOMPSON, JIM WRIGHT, RICHARD Black Boy; Native Son These authors cover a wide range of reading difficulty and sophistication. Some write specifically for YAs (which I find often means middle school level). Others are "adult" authors like Hughes, Baldwin and Himes, but I've found high schoolers (and advanced reader middle schoolers) who've liked these authors. I *highly* recommend The Spook Who Sat By The Door, as one of the best novels I've ever read. You also may be interested in Norton's new division "Old School Books." They've re-published many 20th century out-of-print novels by African Americans -- and mostly men. You'll find them on amazon.com with a search under Old School Books. Many are clearly adult novels, but you could have your patron browse throught the hits for titles he'd find enticing. If he's interested in branching out into poetry (Langston might do that to him), I Am The Darker Brother: An Anthology of Modern Poems By African Americans, edited by Arnold Adoff includes several male poets. Quiet Storm: Voices of Young Black Poets, edited by Lydia Omolola Okutoro, is mostly women poets, but for the men represented, many of their works included were written when they were teenagers.