People
A person (plural, : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of pr ...
'', April 29, 1996. was an American author and
journalist
A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...
.
Early life and education
Doris Jean Austin was born in 1949 in
Mobile, Alabama
Mobile ( , ) is a city and the county seat of Mobile County, Alabama, United States. The population within the city limits was 187,041 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, down from 195,111 at the 2010 United States census, 2010 cens ...
, in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
. She was raised by her mother and grandmother. When she was six years old, Austin moved with her family to
Jersey City, New Jersey
Jersey City is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark.Lincoln High School. She was influenced to become a writer by her high school
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
teacher Reverend Ercell F. Webb. She was raised in a strict
Baptist
Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only (believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compete ...
household, which would also serve as an inspiration for her work. She died in 1994 of
liver cancer
Liver cancer (also known as hepatic cancer, primary hepatic cancer, or primary hepatic malignancy) is cancer that starts in the liver. Liver cancer can be primary (starts in liver) or secondary (meaning cancer which has spread from elsewhere to th ...
.
Career
From 1989 until 1994, Austin taught workshops about
fiction
Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals, events, or places that are imaginary, or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent with history, fact, or plausibility. In a traditi ...
at
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
and at the Frederick Douglass Creative Arts Center. She co-founded the
Harlem Writers Guild
Harlem Writers Guild (HWG) is the oldest organization of African-American writers, originally established as the Harlem Writers Club in 1950 by John Oliver Killens, Rosa Guy, John Henrik Clarke, Willard Moore and Walter Christmas. The Harlem Writer ...
. She left the guild in 1994 and co-founded The New Renaissance Guild. The group was inspired by writers groups during the
Harlem Renaissance
The Harlem Renaissance was an intellectual and cultural revival of African American music, dance, art, fashion, literature, theater, politics and scholarship centered in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, spanning the 1920s and 1930s. At the t ...
NBC Radio
The National Broadcasting Company's NBC Radio Network (known as the NBC Red Network prior to 1942) was an American commercial radio network which was in operation from 1926 through 2004. Along with the NBC Blue Network it was one of the first t ...
Amsterdam News
The ''Amsterdam News'' (also known as ''New York Amsterdam News'') is a weekly Black-owned newspaper serving New York City. It is one of the oldest newspapers geared toward African Americans in the United States and has published columns by s ...
'', and ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
Publishers Weekly
''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of B ...
'', June 26, 1987. The novel pulls inspiration from people that attended the Baptist church Austin attended when young. The book is about "idealism and tainted relationships".Fryor, Imani Lillie B. "Doris Jean Austin (1949–1994)" in Page, Yolanda Williams, ''Encyclopedia of African American Women Writers'', Vol. 1, Greenwood Press, 2007 (), pp. 23–25. Her short story, "Heirs and Orphans," is based on a character in ''After the Garden,'' and was featured in the
anthology
In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs or excerpts by different authors.
In genre fiction, the term ''anthology'' typically categ ...
''Black Southern Voices.'' She had additional short stories appear in ''Street Lights: Illuminating Tales of the Urban Black Experience'', which she co-edited.
Legacy
Austin was best friends with Terry McMillan. In McMillan's book, '' How Stella Got Her Groove Back'', the character Delilah was based on Austin. Writer
Carolyn Ferrell
Carolyn Ferrell (born 1962, Brooklyn, New York) is an American short story writer and novelist.
Life
Ferrell graduated from Sarah Lawrence College, and City College of New York with an MA.
She has lived, worked, and studied in West Berlin, Manhatt ...