Paule Marshall

Writer Class of 1992
location icon Location
Richmond, Virginia
age iconAge
63 at time of award
age iconDate Deceased
August 12, 2019

About Paule's Work

Paule Marshall is a writer of fiction who engages social issues without compromising the nuances of her powerfully realized characters.

In her intricately crafted novels, Marshall explores the theme of healing - the healing of divided selves, divided cultures, and a divided world.  Her work has become important both to literary and cultural critics interested in symbolic ritual and to anthropologists examining the relationship between Caribbean and African cultures.  She is the author of Brown Girl, Brownstones (1959), Soul Clap Hands & Sing (1961), The Chosen Place, The Timeless People (1969), Some Get Wasted (1974), Reena and Other Stories (1983), Praisesong for the Widow (1983), Merle: A Novella and Other Stories (1985), Daughters (1991), and The Fisher King (2002).  She is also the author of the nonfiction work, Language Is the Only Homeland: Bajan Poets Abroad (1995).

Biography

Marshall is the Helen Gould Sheppard Professor of Literature and Culture at New York University.  She has taught previously at Virginia Commonwealth University, Columbia University, the University of Iowa, and the University of California, Berkeley.

Marshall received a B.A. (1953) from the City University of New York, Brooklyn College.

Last updated January 1, 2005

Published on July 1, 1992

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