John Oliver Killens - 1916

Macon

By Tyler Johnson

I.  Biography

John Oliver Killens was born in Macon, Georgia on January 14, 1916. His politically influenced novels earned him two Pulitzer Prize nominations. Killens' fiction and nonfiction novels have been changed translated into many different languages. He has made many important contributions such as the Harlem Writer Guild. He has taught at many different schools and Universities such as Fisk, Howard, and Columbia.

John Oliver Killens' younger influences were his great grandmother's stories of her childhood slavery where she read the writings of Paul Lawrence Dunbar and Langston Hughes. His desire was to become a lawyer and he decided to work for the National Labor Relations Board located in Washington D.C. He worked there from 1936 to 1942, and was recruited by the military for World War II. Killens went to New York as a student, political writer, and a newsman.

While in New York Killens was introduced to the African American artistic community. His first novel was published in 1954, and was called Youngblood. After that he wrote many more novels such as And Then There We Heard the Thunder (1963), Sippi (1976), and Cotillion (1971). Killens was the Vice President of the Black Academy of Arts and Letters and a board member of the National Center for Afro-American Artists.

This essay was submitted by a student of Debbie Wooten, a teacher at Bacon High School in Alma, Georgia.