by Sandra G. Shannon (Editor)
Providing a detailed study of American playwright August Wilson (1945-2005), this collection of new essays explores the development of the author's ethos across his twenty-five-year creative career--a process that transformed his life as he retraced the lives of his fellow "Africans in America." While Wilson's narratives of Pittsburgh and Chicago are microcosms of black life in America, they also reflect the psychological trauma of his disconnection with his biological father, his impassioned efforts to discover and reconnect with the blues, with Africa and with poet/activist Amiri Baraka, and his love for the vernacular of Pittsburgh.
Author Biography
Sandra G. Shannon is a professor of African American Literature in the English department at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Two seminal books along with numerous chapters, and articles on Wilson have established her as a leading scholar in Wilson Studies. She was a key consultant for and contributor to the highly acclaimed PBS American Masters documentary, August Wilson: The Ground on Which I Stand (February 2015). She lives in Bowie, Maryland.