Arna Bontemps Quotes

Arna Bontemps was born in Alexandria, Louisiana. He was an African-American poet, novelist and librarian. After attending public schools, Bontemps attended Pacific Union College in Angwin, California, where he graduated in 1923. While he was teaching, Bontemps began to publish poetry. In both 1926 and 1927, he received the Alexander Pushkin Prize of Opportunity, a National Urban League published journal. And in 1926 he won the Crisis Poetry Prize, which was an official journal of the NAACP. He received a considerable amount of attention for his first novel, God Sends Sunday. This novel was a quintessential writing piece of the Harlem Renaissance movement. Bontemps also began to write several children's books. He returned to graduate school and earned a master's degree in library science from the University of Chicago in 1943. Bontemps was appointed as head librarian at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee.