Angie Thomas Countee Cullen Angela Davis Jesmyn Ward Kiese Laymon Audre Lorde Nikki Giovanni Langston Hughes Dorothy West Henry Louis Gates Jr. Zora Neale Hurston Nella Larsen Owen Dodson Lucille Clifton Angelina Weld Grimke Ishmael Reed Frederick Douglas Zaid Smith W.E.B DuBois Ta-Nehisi Coates Nic Stone Sapphine Alice Walker Octavia Butler James Baldwin Paul Beatty Ralph Ellison Lorraine Hansberry Edwidge Danticat Jason Reynolds Jamaica Kincald Alex Hailey Chimamanda Nguzi Adichle Roxane Gay Colson Whitehead Maya Angelou Toni Morrison Cornel Tayari Jones Alain Locke August Wilson Ann Petry Amira Baraka Bob Kaufman Yaa Gyasi Malcolm X Terry McMillian Edwldge D Frank Yerby Walter Mosley Jacqueline Woodson Ibram Kendi