“(Born Miltona Mirkin Cade, 1939-1995): American short-story writer, novelist, and editor. Known as a writer and social activist, Bambara focused on issues of racial awareness and feminism. Her first, most widely read collection of stories, Gorilla, My Love (1972), depicts a young, sensitive black girl and her family and community as she grows up in a world of racial, sexual, and economic inequality. Her second collection, The Sea Birds Are Still Alive (1977), portrays the intense conflicts among people, especially women, involved in intimate relationships. Interested in black liberation and women’s movements during the 1970s, Bambara edited and contributed to The Black Women: An Anthology (1970), one of the early collections of feminist writing. Her novel, The Salt Eaters (1980), set in Claybourne, Georgia, deals with the recovery of the revolutionary community organizer Velma Henry from an attempted suicide.”
Excerpted from: Murphy, Bruce, ed. Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, Fourth Edition. New York: Harper Collins, 1996.
