Anita Cornwell

Anita Cornwell (born September 23, 1923)[1] is an American lesbian feminist author. In 1983 she wrote the first collection of essays by an African-American lesbian, Black Lesbian in White America.[2]

Anita Cornwell
Born (1923-09-23) September 23, 1923
Greenwood, South Carolina, United States
Notable work
Black Lesbian in White America (1983)

Biography

Born in Greenwood, South Carolina, Cornwell moved to Pennsylvania at the age of 16, living first in Yeadon with her aunt, then in Philadelphia with her mother,[1] who moved north when Cornwell was aged 18. Cornwell has one sibling, an older brother.[3] She graduated from Temple University with a B.S. in journalism and the social sciences in 1948.[1][4] She worked as a journalist for local newspapers and a clerical worker for government agencies.[1]

Cornwell's early writings, published in The Ladder and The Negro Digest in the 1950s, were among the first to identify the author as a black lesbian,[5] and other publications where her work has appeared include Feminist Review, Labyrinth, National Leader, and the Los Angeles Free Press.

Published on October 1, 1983, Cornwell's first book Black Lesbians in America, which includes her essays and an interview with activist Audre Lorde, is widely noted as the first collection of essays by a black lesbian.

Cornwell was honored by the Annual Lambda Literary Festival, which was held in Philadelphia in 2000.[2]

Bibliography
  • Black Lesbian in White America (essays, Naiad Press, 1983)
  • The Girls of Summer (young-adult novel, 1989)

References
  1. Angela Bowen (2000). Bonnie Zimmerman (ed.). Lesbian Histories and Cultures: an Encyclopedia. Taylor & Francis. pp. 203–204. ISBN 0-8153-1920-7.
  2. Nickels, Thom (2002). Gay and lesbian Philadelphia. Arcadia Publishing. p. 74. ISBN 0-7385-1000-9.
  3. "Anita Cornwell, October 6, 1993 · Philadelphia LGBT History Project · OutHistory.org: It's About Time". outhistory.org. Retrieved November 21, 2019.
  4. "Anita R. Cornwell". The Negro Digest. Johnson Publishing Company. November 1966. p. 22. Retrieved January 28, 2010.
  5. Mason, Janet. "Anita Cornwell: Remembrance of things present".
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