The Harlem Writers Guild

1950

Soon after moving to New York in 1957 to advance her writing career, Sarah E. Wright joined the Harlem Writers Guild. Members included Alice Childress, Paule Marshall, John Oliver Killens, Rosa Guy, John Henrik Clarke, and Maya Angelou, who were not yet prominent writers. By reading and critiquing each other’s manuscripts in their homes, Guild members—some starving artists residing in single room occupancies and other humble living quarters—helped foster one another’s writing talents. Immersed in progressive politics, they were all bound by a revolutionary spirit and a strong sense of compassion for the individual struggles of one another.