Marshall, Paule

Marshall, Paule (b. Burke)

(1929– ) writer; born in New York City. She studied at Brooklyn College (B.A. 1953), and Hunter College (1955). She worked as a librarian and as a staff writer for Our World magazine (1953–56). Based in New York City, she became a free-lance writer in 1956. She also taught at Yale (1970), and lectured on Black literature at many institutions. She is known for her stories and novels that celebrate the lives of African-Americans and individuals living in the West Indies and Barbados, as in Praisesong for the Widow (1983).