Bibliography
Other info : Career | Furtherreading
POETRY
- Melissa and Smith, Bookslinger (St. Paul, MN), 1976.
- Natural Disasters and other Festive Occasions (prose and poems), Heirs International (San Francisco, CA), 1977.
- A Photograph: Lovers in Motion: A Drama, S. French (New York, NY), 1977.
- Nappy Edges, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1978.
- Some Men (poems), 1981.
- A Daughter's Geography, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1983.
- From Okra to Greens, Coffee House Press (Minneapolis, MN), 1984.
- Ridin' the Moon in Texas: Word Paintings (responses to art in prose and poetry), St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1987.
- The Love Space Demands: A Continuing Saga, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1991.
- Three Pieces, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1992.
- I Live in Music, edited by Linda Sunshine, illustrated by Romare Bearden, Stewart, Tabori & Chang (New York, NY), 1994.
- The Sweet Breath of Life: A Poetic Narrative of the African-American Family, photographs by the Kamoinge Workshop, Atria Books (New York, NY), 2004.
NOVELS
- Sassafrass, Shameless Hussy Press (San Lorenzo, CA), 1976, revised edition published as Sassafrass, Cypress, and Indigo, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1982.
- For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/ When the Rainbow Is Enuf, Shameless Hussy Press (San Lorenzo, CA), 1976.
- Betsey Brown, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1985.
- Liliane: Resurrection of the Daughter, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1994.
- If I Can Cook You Know God Can, Beacon Press, 1998.
PLAYS
- For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf: A Choreopoem, (first produced in New York, NY, at Studio Rivbea, July 7, 1975; produced off-Broadway at Anspacher Public Theatre, 1976; produced on Broadway at Booth Theatre, September 15, 1976), Shameless Hussy Press (San Lorenzo, CA), 1975, revised edition, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1976.
- A Photograph: A Study of Cruelty (poem-play; first produced off-Broadway at Public Theatre, December 21, 1977; revised and produced as A Photograph: Lovers in Motion in Houston, TX, at the Equinox Theatre, November, 1979), S. French (New York, NY), 1981.
- (With Thulani Nkabinde and Jessica Hagedorn) Where the Mississippi Meets the Amazon, first produced in New York, NY, at Public Theatre Cabaret, December 18, 1977.
- From Okra to Greens: A Different Kinda Love Story; A Play with Music and Dance (first produced in New York, NY, at Barnard College, November, 1978), S. French (New York, NY), 1985, revised edition published as Mouths, The Kitchen, (New York, NY), 1981.
- Boogie Woogie Landscapes (in Poetry at the Public series; produced at Shakespeare Festival (New York, NY), 1978; revised as Black and White Two-Dimensional Planes, produced at Sounds in Motion Studio Works, New York, February, 1979 ; revised and produced on Broadway, at Symphony Space Theater, 1979; produced in Washington, DC, at John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, 1980), St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1978.
- Spell No.7: A Geechee Quick Magic Trance Manual (produced on Broadway at Joseph Papp's New York Shakespeare Festival Public Theater, July 15, 1979), published as Spell No.7: A Theatre Piece in Two Acts, S. French (New York, NY), 1981.
- (Adapter) Bertolt Brecht, Mother Courage and Her Children, first produced off-Broadway at the Public Theatre, April, 1980.
- Three Pieces: Spell No.7; A Photograph: Lovers in Motion; Boogie Woogie Landscapes, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1981.
- It Has Not Always Been This Way: A Choreopoem, (revision of From Okra to Greens: A Different Kinda Love Story), in collaboration with the Sounds in Motion Dance Company, Symphony Space Theater, (New York, NY), 1981.
- Triptych and Bocas: A Performance Piece, (revision of From Okra to Greens: A Different Kinda Love Story) Mark Taper Forum (Los Angeles, CA), 1982.
- Three for a Full Moon [and] Bocas, first produced in Los Angeles, CA, at the Mark Taper Forum Lab, Center Theatre, April 28, 1982.
- (Adapter) Willy Russell, Educating Rita (play), first produced in Atlanta, GA, by Alliance Theatre Company, 1982.
- Three Views of Mt. Fuji (play), first produced at the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, June, 1987, produced in New York, NY, at the New Dramatists, October, 1987.
- Betsey Brown: A Rhythm and Blues Musical, produced in Philadelphia, PA, at American Music Theater Festival, 1989.
- The Love Space Demands: A Continuing Saga, produced in New Brunswick, NJ, at Crossroads Theater, March 1992; in Philadelphia, PA, at Painted Bride Art Center, 1993.
- Whitewash (video screenplay), First Run Features, 1994.
Author of the operetta Carrie, produced in 1981. Has written for a television special starring Diana Ross, and appears in a documentary about her own work for WGBH-TV (Boston, MA).
PROSE AND ESSAYS
- See No Evil: Prefaces, Essays and Accounts, 1976-1983, Momo’s Press (San Francisco, CA), 1984.
- (Author of foreword) Robert Mapplethorpe, The Black Book, St. Martin’s Press (New York, NY), 1986.
- Plays, One, Methuen (London, England), 1992.
- (Contributor) Jules Feiffer, Selected from Contemporary American Plays: An Anthology, Literacy Volunteers of New York City (New York, NY), 1990.
- (Author of preface) Francoise Kourilsky and Catherine Temerson, editors, Plays by Women, Book Two: An International Anthology, Ubu Repertory Theater Publications (New York, NY), 1994.
- If I Can Cook You Know God Can, Beacon Press (Boston, MA), 1999.
- (Editor) The Beacon Best of 1999: Creative Writing by Women and Men of All Colors, Houghton Mifflin (New York, NY), 1999.
FOR CHILDREN
- Whitewash, illustrated by Michael Sporn, Walker (New York, NY), 1997.
- Float Like a Butterfly: Muhammad Ali, the Man Who Could Float Like a Butterfly and Sting Like a Bee, Jump at the Sun (New York, NY), 2002.
- Ellington Was Not a Street, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2003.
- Daddy Says, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2003.
Contributor to anthologies, including Love's Fire: Seven New Plays Inspired by Seven Shakespearean Sonnets, introduction by Mark Lamos, Quill, (New York, NY), 1998; "May Your Days Be Merry and Bright" and Other Christmas Stories by Women, edited by Susan Koppelman, Wayne State University Press (Detroit, MI), 1988; New Plays for the Black Theatre, edited by Woodie King, Jr., Third World Press (Chicago, IL), 1989; Breaking Ice: An Anthology of Contemporary African American Fiction, edited by Terry McMillan, Penguin Books (New York, NY), 1990; Yellow Silk: Erotic Arts and Letters, edited by Lily Pond and Richard Russo, Harmony Books (New York, NY), 1990; Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology, edited by Margaret Bushby, Pantheon (New York, NY), 1992; Erotique Noire—Black Erotica, edited by Miriam DeCosta-Willis, Reginald Martin, and Roseann P. Bell, Anchor (New York, NY), 1992; Resurgent: New Writing by Women, edited by Lou Robinson and Camille Norton, University of Illinois Press (Champaign, IL), 1992; Wild Women Don't Wear No Blues: Black Women Writers on Love, Men, and Sex, edited by Marita Golden, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1993; and Moon Marked and Touched by Sun: Plays by African-American Women, edited by Sydne Mahone, Theater Communications Group (New York, NY), 1994. Contributor to periodicals, including Black Scholar, Third World Women, Ms., and Yardbird Reader.