Sunday, November 27, 2016

Black Short Stories: A Timeline


By Kenton Rambsy

A partial timeline on the histories of short stories:

1859: Frances Ellen Watkins Harper’s “Two Offers” is published in the Anglo-African.

1887: Charles Chesnutt’s “The Goophered Grapevine” is published in The Atlantic .

1895: Alice Ruth Moore's Violets and Other Tales is published.

1898: Charles Chesnutt’s “The Wife of His Youth” is published in the July issue of The Atlantic.

1898: Paul Laurence Dunbar’s Folks From Dixie is published.

1899: Charles Chesnutt’s The Conjure Woman, and Other Conjure Tales is published by Houghton Mifflin.

1899: Alice Ruth Moore's The Goodness of St. Rocque and other stories is published by Dodd, Mead and Company.

1899: Charles Chesnutt’s The Wife of His Youth and Other Stories of the Color-Line is published by Houghton Mifflin.

1900: Paul Laurence Dunbar’s The Strength of Gideon and Other Stories is published.

1921: Zora Neale Hurston wrote “John Redding Goes to Sea” and became a member of Alaine Locke's literary club.

1925: Rudolph Fisher’s “City of Refuge” is published in the Atlantic in February.

1925: Zora Neale Hurston’s “Spunk” is published in The New Negro an anthology of African American poetry, fiction, and essays edited by Alaine Locke.

1925: Zora Neale Hurston won the second-place fiction prize for her short story “Spunk” in the May 1 issue of Opportunity Magazine.

1925: Rudolph Fisher’s “Vestiges” is published in The New Negro ,an anthology edited by Alain Locke.

1933: Zora Neale Hurston’s “The Gilded Six-Bits” is published.

1934: Langston Hughes’s collection of short stories The Ways of White Folks is published.

1936: Richard Wright’s “Big Boy Leaves Home” is published in The New Caravan.

1937: Richard Wright’s “Silt” is published in New Masses.

1938: Richard Wright’s “Fire and Cloud” wins first prize and is published in Story magazine.

1947: Ralph Ellison’s “Battle Royal” is published in Horizon magazine.

1950: Langston Hughes’s collection of short stories Simple Speaks His Mind is published.

1952: Langston Hughes’s collection of short stories Laughing to Keep from Crying is published.

1953: Langston Hughes’s collection of short stories Simple Takes a Wife is published.


1956: Ernest Gaines publishes his first short story, “The Turtles,” in a college magazine at San Francisco State University.

1957: James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues” is published in the Partisan Review.

1957: Ernest Gaines’s “Boy in the Double-Breasted Suit” is published.

1957: Langston Hughes’s collection of short stories Simple Stakes a Claim is published.

1958: Langston Hughes’s collection of short stories Tambourines to Glory is published.

1960: Ernest Gaines’s “Mary Louis” is published.

1961: Richard Wright’s collection of stories Eight Men is published posthumously.

1961: Langston Hughes’s collection of short stories The Best of Simple is published.

1963: Ernest Gaines’s “Just Like a Tree” is published.

1963: Ernest Gaines’s “The Sky Is Gray” is published

1963: Langston Hughes’s Something in Common and Other Stories is published.

1964: Ernest Gaines’s “A Long Day in November” is published.

1965: James Baldwin’s collection Going to Meet the Man is published by Dial Press.

1965: Langston Hughes’s collection of short stories Simple's Uncle Sam is published.

1966: Ernest Gaines’s “My Grandpa and the Haint” is published.

1967: Amiri Baraka’s collection of stories Tales is published.

1969: James Alan McPherson's Hue and Cry: Stories is published.

1971: Ann Petry’s Miss Muriel and Other Stories is published.

1972: Toni Cade Bambara’s collection of stories Gorilla, My Love is published.

1973: Alice Walker's collection of stories  In Love and Trouble: Stories of Black Women is published.

1974: Henry Dumas’s Ark of Bones and Other Stories is published posthumously.

1977: Gayl Jones’s White Rat is published.

1977: Toni Cade Bambara’s The Sea Birds Are Still Alive: Collected Stories is published.

1977: James Alan McPherson's Elbow Room: Stories is published.

1978: Jamaica Kincaid’s “In the Night” is published in the July 17 issue of The New Yorker.

1979: Jamaica Kincaid’s “Wingless” is published in the January 22 issue of The New Yorker.

1979: Jamaica Kincaid’s “Holiday” is published in the August 20 issue of The New Yorker.

1979: Henry Dumas’s collection of stories Rope of Wind and Other Stories is published posthumously.

1981: Jamaica Kincaid’s “The Letter from Home” is published in the April 13 issue of The New Yorker.

1981: Charles Johnson’s “Exchange Value” is published.

1982: Jamaica Kincaid’s “At the Bottom of the River” is published in the April 26 issue of The New Yorker.

1982: Alice Walker’s collection of stories You Can't Keep a Good Woman Down: Stories is published.

1983: Toni Morrison's “Recitatif” is published in Confirmation: Anthology of African American Women edited by Amiri Baraka and Amina Baraka.

1983: Jamaica Kincaid’s “Figures in the Distance” is published in the May 2 issue of The New Yorker.

1983: Jamaica Kincaid’s “The Red Girl” is published in the August 1 issue of The New Yorker.

1983: Jamaica Kincaid’s “Columbus in Chains” is published in the October 3 issue of The New Yorker.

1983: Jamaica Kincaid’s “The Circling Hand” is published in the November 14 issue of The New Yorker.

1983: Jamaica Kincaid’s collection of short stories At the Bottom of the River is published.

1983: Paule Marshall’s Reena and Other Stories is published.

1984: Jamaica Kincaid’s “Gwen” is published in the April 9 issue of The New Yorker.

1984: Jamaica Kincaid’s “Somewhere, Belgium” is published in the May 7 issue of The New Yorker.

1984: Jamaica Kincaid’s “The Long Rain” is published in the July 23 issue of  The New Yorker.

1984: Jamaica Kincaid’s “A Walk to the Jetty” is published in the October 29 issue of The New Yorker.

1985: Zora Neale Hurston’s Spunk: Selected Stories is published posthumously.

1986: Charles Johnson’s The Sorcerer's Apprentice is published.

1988: Henry Dumas’s Goodbye, Sweetwater: New and Selected Stories is published posthumously.

1989: Jamaica Kincaid’s “Poor Visitor” is published in the February 20 issue of The New Yorker.

1989: Jamaica Kincaid’s “Mariah” is published in the June 19 issue of The New Yorker.

1989: Jamaica Kincaid’s “The Tongue” is published in the October 2 issue of The New Yorker.

1989: Jamaica Kincaid’s “Cold Heart” is published in the June 18 issue of The New Yorker.

1990: Jamaica Kincaid’s “Lucy” is published in the September 17 issue of The  New Yorker.

1992: Edward P. Jones’s collection of stories Lost in the City is published.

1993: Jamaica Kincaid’s “Song of Roland” is published in the April 5 issue of The New Yorker.

1994: Jamaica Kincaid’s “Xuela” is published in the May 2 issue of The New Yorker.

1994: Alice Walker’s The Complete Stories is published.

1995: Jamaica Kincaid’s “In Roseau” is published in the April 10 issue of The New Yorker.

1995: Zora Neale Hurston’s The Complete Stories is published posthumously.

1995: Octavia Butler’s Bloodchild and other stories is published.

1996: Langston Hughes’s Short Stories of Langston Hughes is published posthumously.

1996: Percival Everett’s “The Appropriation of Cultures” is published.

1996: Edwidge Danticat's collection of stories Krik? Krak! is published.

1996: Ralph Ellison’s Flying Home and Other Stories is published posthumously.

2000: ZZ Packer’s “Drinking Coffee Elsewhere” is published in the June 12 issue of The New Yorker.

2001: Walter Mosley’s Futureland: Nine Stories of an Imminent World is published.

2001: Charles Johnson’s Soulcatcher and Other Stories is published. 

2001: Nalo Hopkinson’s Skin Folk is published.

2002: ZZ Packer’s “The Ant of the Self” is published in the November 18 issue of The New Yorker.

2003: Edward P. Jones’s “A Rich Man” is published in the July 28 issue of The New Yorker.

2003: Edward P. Jones’s “All Aunt Hagar’s Children” is published in the December 15 issue of Thew New Yorker.

2003: Henry Duma’s collection of short fiction Echo Tree: The Collected Short Fiction of Henry Dumas is published posthumously.

2004: ZZ Packer’s Drinking Coffee Elsewhere is published.

2004: Edward P. Jones’s “Old Boys, Old Girls” is published in the May 3 issue of The New Yorker

2004: Edward P. Jones’s “Adam Robinson” is published in the December 13 issue of The New Yorker.

2004: Percival Everett’s Damned if I Do: Stories is published.

2005: Charles Johnson’s Dr. King’s Refrigerator and Other Bedtime Stories is published.

2006: Edward P. Jones’s “Bad Neighbors” is published in the July 31 issue of The New Yorker.

2006: Edward P. Jones’s All Aunt Hagar's Children is published.

2006: Amiri Baraka’s collection of stories Tales of the Out & the Gone is published.

2008: Colson Whitehead’s “The Gangster’s” is published in the December 22 issue of The New Yorker.

2009: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s collection of short stories The Thing Around Your Neck is published.

2010: ZZ Packer’s “Dayward” is published in the June 7 issue of The New Yorker.

2011: James E. Cherry's Still a Man and Other Stories is published.

2012: Walter Mosley’s “Reply to a Dead Man” is published in December issue of The Atlantic.

2013: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s "Checking out" is published in the March 18 issue of The New Yorker.

2015: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s “Apollo” is published in April 13 issue of The New Yorker.

2015: Toni Morrison’s “Sweetness” is published in the February 9 issue of The New Yorker.

2015: John Keene’s Counternarratives: Stories and Novellas is published.

2016: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s “The Arrangments’: A Work of Fiction” is published in the July 3 issue of The New Yorker.

Related:
Timelines
Short stories  

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Thank you for this great list. I realize this a selective list, but I was wondering why you left out James Alan McPherson. I really loved Elbow Room.

H. Rambsy said...

Thanks. Updated. Also added McPherson's earlier collection, Hue and Cry: Stories (1969).

er o said...

To unknown: Both of Mcpherson's books are on the list. You missed them.
Missing is the wonderful collection Don't Erases Me by Carolyn Ferell. Also absent is The Collected Short Stories of Chester Himes (1991)and William Melvin Kelly's Dancers on The Shore.