Ntozake Shange biography

Ntozake Shange Biography

Ntozake Shange is a renowned playwright, poet, and novelist. Born Paulette Williams in 1948, attended Barnard College (B.A., 1970) and the University of Southern California (M.A., 1973). Her works include the Obie Award-winning for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf, Betsey Brown, Liliane and Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo. Among her honors and awards are fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund and a Pushcart Prize. A graduate of Barnard and recipient of a Masters in American Studies from University of Southern California, she currently lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Shange wrote her first novel Some Sing, Some Cry, with her sister, Chicago playwright Ifa Bayeza.

Ntozake means "she who comes with her own things," and Shange means "who walks like a lion."

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