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- New York State Writers Institute - Audre Lorde
- Library of Congress - Audre Lorde
- Facing History and Ourselves - Exploring Audre Lorde�s Intersectionality
- Digital Commons at VCCS - Audre Lorde and the Power of Provocative Imagery (PDF)
- National Women's History Museum - Audre Lorde
- BlackPast.org - (1981) Audre Lorde, "The Uses of Anger: Women Responding to Racism"
- Women and the American Story - Life Story: Audre Lorde (1934�1992)
- Poets.org - Audre Lorde
- The Ethics Center - Big Thinker: Audre Lorde
- Poetry Foundation - Biography of Audre Lorde
- Literary Devices - Audre Lorde
Audre Lorde
Audre Lorde (born February 18, 1934,New York, New York, U.S.—died November 17, 1992, St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands) was an American poet, essayist, and autobiographer known for her passionate writings onlesbian feminism and racial issues.
The daughter of Grenadan parents, Lorde attended Hunter College and received a B.A. in 1959 and amaster’s degree inlibrary science in 1961. She married in 1962 and wrotepoetry while working as a librarian at Town School in New York; she also taught English at Hunter College. In 1968 her first volume of poetry,The First Cities, was published, and Lorde briefly left New York to become poet-in-residence at Toogaloo College in Mississippi.
Cables to Rage (1970) explored her anger at social and personal injustice and contained the first poetic expression of herlesbianism. Her next volumes,From a Land Where Other People Live (1973) andNew York Head Shop and Museum (1974), were morerhetorical and political.
Coal (1976), acompilation of earlier works, was Lorde’s first release by a major publisher, and it earned critical notice. Most critics considerThe Black Unicorn (1978) to be her finest poetic work. In the collection she turned from the urban themes of her early work, looking instead to Africa, and wrote on her role as mother and daughter, using rich imagery and mythology.
- In full:
- Audre Geraldine Lorde
- Also called:
- Gamba Adisa or Rey Domini
- Died:
- November 17, 1992, St. Croix,U.S. Virgin Islands (aged 58)
- Awards And Honors:
- National Book Award (1989)
- Role In:
- Black feminism
- On the Web:
- BlackPast.org - (1981) Audre Lorde, "The Uses of Anger: Women Responding to Racism" (Nov. 06, 2025)
The poet’s 14-year battle with cancer is examined inThe Cancer Journals (1980), in which she recorded her early battle with the disease and gave a feministcritique of the medical profession. In 1980 Lorde and African American writer and activist Barbara Smith created a new publishing house, Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press. Lorde’s volumeA Burst of Light (1988), which further detailed her struggle with cancer, won a National Book Award in 1989. She also wrote thenovelZami: A New Spelling of My Name (1982), noted for its clear,evocative imagery and its treatment of a mother-daughter relationship. Her poetry collection,Undersong: Chosen Poems Old and New, was published in 1992. Her last volume of poetry,The Marvelous Arithmetics of Distance, was published posthumously, in 1993.