he short stories written by Black Bostonians during the 1920s and 1930s convey depth, wit, and subtle social commentary.
Two writers - Dorothy West (The Richer, The Poorer: Stories, Sketches, and Reminiscences) and Marita Bonner (Frye Street and Environs: the Collected Works)—were “discovered” and published in the late1980s.
Marita Bonner’s writing reflects the double and triple jeopardy African American women encountered when they tried to advance in a race-, sex-, and class-conscious society. Dorothy West’s work on the other hand, explores subtleties of character, ironies of fate, and poignant moments of childhood.

To the voices of West and Bonner we need to add others, in order to obtain a broader picture of how Black Bostonians, especially women, were thinking in the time between two World Wars. Selections by Edythe Mae Gordon, Gertrude Schalk, Florida Ruffin Ridley, Alvirah Hazzard, and Florence Marion Harmon can be found in Lorraine Elena Roses and Ruth E. Randolph’s Harlem’s Glory: Black Women Writing, 1900-1950.

Also part of the fiction group are Eugene Gordon and Roscoe Wright, though he is primarily known as an essayist.