Ann Allen Shockley

Ann Allen Shockley is an American journalist, author, and librarian. She is known for her works of fiction exploring Black lesbian relationships, and for her work on library and archives services for African Americans.

Life

Shockley was born in 1927 in Louisville, Kentucky. She graduated with a bachelor's degree from Fisk University in 1948, and subsequently worked as a journalist and column writer for various newspapers. She married William Shockley in 1948, and they had two children, although the couple later divorced.^[1]

Shockley received her master's degree in library science from Case Western Reserve University in 1959. She had positions at libraries at Delaware State College and the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, before becoming the librarian for Special Negro Collection at Fisk University in 1969. She remained at Fisk until her retirement in 1988, after serving as associate librarian for special collections and university archivist. She was also a professor of library science at the university. While at Fisk, she founded the Black Oral History Program. Throughout her career, she published several books on librarianship and special collections, particularly related to African-American collections.^[2]

Shockley is also a prolific author, having published more than thirty short stories and several novels. Her first novel, Loving her, published in 1974, was an early novel exploring Black lesbian relationships. Her other work, including a collection of short stories and two other novels, also addresses issues of racism and homophobia faced by Black lesbians.^[1]

Major works

Non-fiction

• A History of Public Library Services to Negros in the South, 1900-1955 (1960)
• A Handbook for the Administration of Special Black Collections (1970)
• A Handbook of Black Librarianship (editor, with E.J. Josey) (1977)
• Afro-American Women Writers, 1746-1933: An Anthology and Critical Guide (1988)

Fiction

• Loving Her (1974)
• The Black and White of It (1980)
• Say Jesus and Come to Me (1982)
• Celebrating Hotchclaw (2005)

External links

Works by or about Ann Allen Shockley in libraries (WorldCat catalog)

References

1. Contemporary African American Novelists: A Bio-bibliographical Critical Sourcebook. Greenwood Publishing Group. 1999. pp. 433–437.
2. "Shockley, Ann Allen letter, 1980 finding aid". Amistad Research Center, Tulane University. Retrieved 3 August 2016.