Toni Cade Bambara (1939-1995)

Our last novelist for Nat'l Novel Writing Month, is the fantastically talented Toni Cade Bambara

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Toni Cade Bambara, original name Toni Cade, (born March 25, 1939, New York, N.Y., U.S.—died Dec. 9, 1995, Philadelphia, Pa.), American writer, civil-rights activist, and teacher who wrote about the concerns of the African-American community.

In 1959, Cade received her B.A. in theater arts/English from Queens College and published her first short story, “Sweet Town.” After a year in Milan, Italy, Cade returned to New York in 1962 to finish a Master's degree in modern American fiction at New York City College, while working as a social worker, occupational therapist and director of various neighborhood projects.

In 1970, Bambara edited and published her first book, The Black Woman: An Anthology, in which African American women of different ages and classes voiced issues not addressed by the civil rights and women's movements. Bambara nurtured and promoted young writers by including college undergraduates as well as famous writers like Audre Lorde in The Black Woman and in a second anthology, Tales and Stories for Black Folks (1971). In October, 1972, Toni Cade Bambara published her first short-story collection called Gorilla, My Love. Between 1973 and 1975, Bambara visited Cuba and Viet Nam and learned about the political effectiveness of women's organizations in these countries.

Bambara’s fiction, which is set in the rural South as well as the urban North, is written in black street dialect and presents sharply drawn characters whom she portrayed with affection. She published the short-story collections Gorilla, My Love (1972) and The Sea Birds Are Still Alive (1977), as well as the novels The Salt Eaters (1980) and If Blessing Comes (1987). She edited and contributed to The Black Woman: An Anthology (1970) and to Tales and Stories for Black Folks (1971). She also collaborated on several television documentaries.

In the early 1980s, Bambara and her daughter again relocated, this time to Philadelphia, where she completed two other novels, If Blessing Comes (1987) and Raymond's Run (1990), and nine screenplays, including Bombing of Osage and Tar Baby (based on a novel by Toni Morrison). After writing another collection of short stories, Toni Cade Bambara died of colon cancer on December 9, 1995, at the age of 56.

Reference

Brittanica

Fembio.org