Mae Virginia Cowdery

Mae Virginia Cowdery (January 10, 1909 – 1953) was an African-American poet and participant in the Harlem Renaissance.^[1]

Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, her mother was a social worker and an assistant director of the Bureau for Colored Children (later the Bureau for Child Care); her father was a caterer and postal worker, Lemuel Cowdery.^[2] Cowdery discovered her talent for poetry as a child. Three of her poems were published in Black Opals, a local Philadelphia Journal. In a poetry contest sponsored by The Crisis, her poem "Longings" won first place.

Works

• We Lift Our Voices and Other Poems, 1936

References

1. Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance, 2 volumes, Editors Paul Finkelman and Cary Wintz, Psychology Press, 2004. ISBN 0203319303, 9780203319307
2. Maureen Honey (2006). Shadowed dreams: women's poetry of the Harlem Renaissance. Rutgers University Press. pp. 51–72. ISBN 978-0-8135-3886-0. Retrieved 21 May 2013.