Marita Golden

Marita Golden (born 1950) is an award-winning novelist, nonfiction writer, distinguished teacher of writing and co-founder of the Hurston/Wright Foundation, a national organization that serves as a resource center for African-American writers.

Marita Golden was born in Washington, D.C. in 1950 and attended the city’s public schools. She received a B.A. in American Studies and English from American University and a M.SC. in Journalism from Columbia University. After graduating from Columbia, she worked in publishing and began a career as a free-lance writer, writing feature articles for many magazines and newspapers including Essence Magazine, New York Times, and Washington Post.

Her first book, Migrations of the Heart, was based on her experiences coming of age during the 1960s and her political activism as well as her marriage to a Nigerian and her life in Nigeria where she lived for four years.

She has taught at many colleges and universities including the University of Lagos in Lagos Nigeria, Roxbury Community College, Emerson College, American University, George Mason University, and Virginia Commonwealth University. She holds the position of Writer in Residence at the University of the District of Columbia, in Washington, D.C. Previous Writer in Residence positions have been held at Brandeis University, University of the District of Columbia, Hampton University, Simmons College, Columbia College^{[disambiguation needed ]}, William and Mary, Old Dominion University and Howard University.^[1]

As a literary activist, she co-founded the Washington, D.C. based African American Writers Guild, as well as the Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Foundation, which serves the national and international community of Black writers.

Works

Novels

• Long Distance Life
• A Woman’s Place
• And Do Remember Me
• The Edge of Heaven
• After

Nonfiction

• Migrations of the Heart
• Don’t Play in the Sun One Woman’s Journey Through The Color Complex

-“Ah just couldn’t see mahself married to no black man. It’s too many black folks already. We ought to lighten up the race” this quote from Their Eyes Were Watching God opens Marita Golden’s book Don’t Play in the Sun, a memoir about her identification with the color complex. In this quote Mrs. Turner, a character in the novel, speaks the essence of the color complex, the more skin pigmentation African Americans have the more insignificant they are as a person.^[2] Golden uses the quote from There Eyes Were Watching God because it is similar to her mother telling her “…I’ve told you don’t play in the sun. You’re going to have to get a light-skinned husband for the sake of your children as it is” ^[3] These two quotes are two similar concepts that come from the colorist ideology of African Americans. Colorism, color-conscious, color struck, color complex are all words describing this ideology. Golden uses color complex because the belief system is an exaggerated reaction to matters of the skin in which an entire culture of persons are preoccupy themselves with. Marita Golden explores how the color complex affected her personally and how it affects the African American culture as a whole.

• A Miracle Everyday: Triumph and Transformation in the Lives of Single Mothers
• Saving Our Sons Raising Black Children in a Turbulent World

Anthologies

• Skin Deep: Black and White Women on Race
• Gumbo A Celebration of African American Writing
• It’s All Love Black Writers on Soul Mates Family and Friends

Awards

• 2008 Maryland Author Award from the Association of Maryland Librarians
• 2007 Award for Fiction from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association (for her novel AFTER)
• 2002 Distinguished Service Award from the Authors Guild
• 2001 Barnes and Noble Writers for Writers Award presented by Poets and Writers
• Inducted into the International Literary Hall of Fame of Writers of African Descent at the Gwendolyn Brooks Center at Chicago State University
• Honorary Doctorate from the University of Richmond
• Woman of the Year Award from Zeta Phi Beta
• Distinguished Alumni Award from American University^[1]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Marita Golden Papers Finding Aid, Special Collections Research Center, Estelle and Melvin Gelman Library, The George Washington University
2. ^ Marita Golden, Don't Play in the Sun: One Woman's Journey Through The Color Complex (New York, Random House,2004) 3
3. ^ Marita Golden, Don't Play in the Sun: One Woman's Journey Through The Color Complex (New York, Random House,2004) 4

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Name	Golden, Marita
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Date of birth	1950
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