What's new: April 2020

April 23, 2020

This update features five new essays, with a focus on important American writers and critics. It includes one of the nation’s foremost film critics, Pauline Kael; the noted black nationalist writer and poet Amiri Baraka; Esther Rome, co-author of the feminist bestseller Our Bodies, Ourselves; Chicano poet, artist, and civil rights activist José Montoya; and poet John Ashbery, whose collection Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror won the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award in 1976.

Ashbery, John Lawrence (28 July 1927–3 Sept. 2017), poet, translator and art critic

Baraka, Amiri (7 Oct. 1934–9 Jan. 2014), poet, playwright, writer, and political activist
Kael, Pauline (19 June 1919–3 Sept. 2001), film critic

Montoya, José Ernesto (28 May 1932–25 Sept. 2013), poet, visual artist, and activist

Rome, Esther R. (8 Sept. 1945–24 June 1995), women’s health activist and author

The American National Biography (ANB) is updated regularly throughout the year, giving you access to the most up-to-date and accurate information available. Full access to all biographies is available by subscription.

Discover a full list of entries added this year.