Book Series Guide

Audre Lorde

Author guide

Audre Lorde Books in Order

Audre Lorde (1934–1992) was a Black lesbian feminist poet, essayist, memoirist, teacher, and activist born in New York City to Caribbean immigrant parents. Her writing combined lyrical intensity with sustained analyses of racism, sexism, homophobia, class oppression, motherhood, illness, and political solidarity. She published poetry collections, essays and speeches, the biomythography Zami, and influential works on breast cancer and feminist organizing. Lorde co-founded Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press and was New York State Poet Laureate from 1991 to 1992.

poetryessaysspeechesmemoirbiomythographyfeminist theoryactivism

Catalog record updated .

Not sure where to begin?

Start with one of these

Cover of Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches

Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches

Best introduction to Lorde's essays, speeches, feminist thought, and political analysis.

Cover of Zami: A New Spelling of My Name

Zami: A New Spelling of My Name

A major autobiographical work that introduces Lorde's life, relationships, identity, and literary voice.

Cover of The Black Unicorn: Poems

The Black Unicorn: Poems

A central poetry collection presenting Lorde's themes of Black womanhood, myth, motherhood, sexuality, and power.

Outside the series

Bibliography by category

Novels (1)
  1. The Cancer Journals

    nonfiction-memoir · 1980

    Moving between journal entry, memoir, and exposition, Audre Lorde fuses the personal and political as she reflects on her experience coping with breast cancer and a radical mastectomy. A Penguin Classic First published over forty years…

Essays and speeches (4)
  1. Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power

    essay-pamphlet · 1978

  2. Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches

    essay-collection · 1984

    The woman's place of power within each of us is neither white nor surface; it is dark, it is ancient, and it is deep The revolutionary writings of Audre Lorde gave voice to those 'outside the circle of this society's definition of…

  3. I Am Your Sister: Black Women Organizing Across Sexualities

    essay-pamphlet · 1985

  4. A Burst of Light: Essays

    essay-collection · 1988

Poetry (10)
  1. The First Cities

    poetry-collection · 1968

  2. Cables to Rage

    poetry-collection · 1970

  3. From a Land Where Other People Live

    poetry-collection · 1973

  4. New York Head Shop and Museum

    poetry-collection · 1974

  5. Coal

    poetry-collection · 1976

  6. Between Our Selves

    poetry-collection · 1976

  7. The Black Unicorn: Poems

    poetry-collection · 1978

  8. Our Dead Behind Us: Poems

    poetry-collection · 1986

  9. Need: A Chorale for Black Woman Voices

    poetry-collection · 1990

  10. The Marvelous Arithmetics of Distance: Poems 1987–1992

    poetry-collection · 1993

    A final volume of poetry written during the last five years of the 1991 New York State Poet's life explores her international concerns. By the winner of the Manhattan Borough President's Award for Excellence in the Arts. Reprint.

Collaborations (1)
  1. Apartheid U.S.A./Our Common Enemy, Our Common Cause: Freedom Organizing in the Eighties

    co-authored-pamphlet · 1986

Other (2)
  1. Zami: A New Spelling of My Name

    biomythography · 1982

    Zami: A Carriacou name for women who work together as friends and lovers “Zami is a fast-moving chronicle. From the author’s vivid childhood memories in Harlem to her coming of age in the late 1950s, the nature of Audre Lorde’s work is…

  2. I Am Your Sister: Collected and Unpublished Writings of Audre Lorde

    collected-writings · 2009

    Audre Lorde was not only a famous poet; she was also one of the most important radical black feminists of the past century. Her writings and speeches grappled with an impressive broad list of topics, including sexuality, race, gender,…

Frequently asked questions about Audre Lorde

Who was Audre Lorde?

Audre Lorde was a Black lesbian feminist poet, essayist, teacher, and activist. Her writing confronted racism, sexism, homophobia, class oppression, and illness.

Sources: poets.org (opens in a new tab)alp.org (opens in a new tab)

When and where was Audre Lorde born?

Audre Lorde was born on February 18, 1934, in New York City to immigrant parents from Grenada. She was raised in Manhattan.

Source: poets.org (opens in a new tab)

What influenced Audre Lorde’s writing and activism?

Her experiences as a Black lesbian, mother, and cancer patient shaped her work, as did Black liberation, feminist, civil-rights, and LGBTQ+ movements. She emphasized coalition-building across differences of race, gender, sexuality, class, age, and ability.

Sources: poets.org (opens in a new tab)alp.org (opens in a new tab)

What honors did Audre Lorde receive?

Lorde received a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship in 1981, and her prose collection A Burst of Light won a National Book Award. She was also New York’s poet laureate from 1991 to 1992.

Sources: poets.org (opens in a new tab)empirestateplaza.ny.gov (opens in a new tab)

What is Audre Lorde’s legacy?

Lorde remains influential in Black feminist, LGBTQ+, literary, and social-justice movements because she connected personal experience with collective liberation. The Audre Lorde Project, a New York City organizing center for LGBTQ+ people of color, carries her name and continues related justice work.

Sources: alp.org (opens in a new tab)empirestateplaza.ny.gov (opens in a new tab)