Paule Marshall (1981)

From the classic Brown Girl, Brownstones, through the short story collection Soul Clap Hands and Sing to the epic novel The Chosen Place, the Timeless People, to the acclaimed Praisesong for the Widow, Paule Marshall’s work shows that lasting literature can be at once symbolic and sharply focused, local and universal, and passionate without being strident. She argues that memory can maim as well as heal the victims of oppression, writing, “Once a great wrong has been done, it never dies. People speak the words of peace, but their hearts do not forgive. Generations perform ceremonies of reconciliation but there is no end.” Marshall has consistently created characters that capture the culture that gives them their being. Dorothy L. Denniston explains, “Marshall offers no easy solutions in her fiction, but she does suggest models for change and possibility. Because she develops those possibilities through the characterization of Black women, she celebrates female agency and empowerment.”