Defining Ourselves offers perspectives on black literature in the 1990s by twenty-nine black
writers and critics including Paule Marshall Amiri Baraka John A. Williams Ishmael Reed
Walter Mosley Marita Golden Thulani Davis Jill Nelson Arthur Flowers Lorna Goodison Bebe
Moore Campbell Brent Staples Terry McMillan Stanley Crouch Houston A. Baker Jr. Barbara
Christian Karla FC Holloway and William W. Cook. The essays in this book are based on papers
presented at the Fourth National Black Writers Conference at Medgar Evers College of the City
University of New York which focused on the question of whether or not black literature in the
90s is experiencing a renaissance to end all renaissances. In addition to this topic this book
addresses the issues of the universality of black literature the changing tastes and concerns
of black readers and the politics of publishing.
