Zara Wright was an

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...

author based in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. Her only known published works are '' Black and White Tangled Threads'' and its sequel ''

Kenneth Kenneth is an English given name and surname. The name is an Anglicised form of two entirely different Gaelic personal names: ''Cainnech'' and '' Cináed''. The modern Gaelic form of ''Cainnech'' is ''Coinneach''; the name was derived from a byn ...

'', published under the same cover in 1920. What information there is about her is found in the preface of her first novel, ''Black and White Tangled Threads'', which was dedicated to her husband, J. Edward Wright, whose memory the book is dedicated to. A favorable one-paragraph review in the ''

Chicago Defender ''The Chicago Defender'' is a Chicago-based online African-American newspaper. It was founded in 1905 by Robert S. Abbott and was once considered the "most important" newspaper of its kind. Abbott's newspaper reported and campaigned against Jim ...

'' described the book as a "realistic portrayal of individuals and events

hat A hat is a head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorporate mecha ...

lift one to the heights of earthly ambitions".''Chicago Defender'', December 1920, p. 8. Both novels concern the lives of two families and contain tales of love triangles and hidden racial identities. There are also messages of racial uplift but these are secondary to the melodrama to be found in both novels. It is not known where she was born nor how and when she died.

Books

*''Black and White Tangled Threads''. (Includes the sequel ''Kenneth''.) Chicago; Barnard & Miller, 1920. Reprinted New York: AMS Press, 1975. *

References

* Shockley, Ann Allen. ''Afro-American Women Writers 1746-1933: An Anthology and Critical Guide'', New Haven, Connecticut: Meridian Books, 1989. . {{DEFAULTSORT:Wright, Zara 20th-century African-American writers African-American women writers African-American writers American writers Writers from Chicago Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown