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Kathleen Collins

Biography

Kathleen Collins

Kathleen Collins, who died in 1988 at age 46, was an African-American playwright, writer, filmmaker, director and educator from Jersey City. She was the first black woman to produce a feature length film.

Kathleen Collins

Books by Kathleen Collins

Notes from a Black Woman's Diary: Selected Works of Kathleen Collins
written by Kathleen Collins, edited by Nina Lorez Collins - Fiction, Short Stories

Relatively unknown during her life, the artist, filmmaker and writer Kathleen Collins emerged on the literary scene in 2016 with the posthumous publication of the short story collection WHATEVER HAPPENED TO INTERRACIAL LOVE? Said Zadie Smith, “To be this good and yet to be ignored is shameful, but her rediscovery is a great piece of luck for us.” That rediscovery continues in NOTES FROM A BLACK WOMAN’S DIARY, which spans genres to reveal the breadth and depth of the late author’s talent. The compilation is anchored by more of Collins’ short stories, which reveal the ways in which relationships are both formed and come undone. Also collected here is the work Collins wrote for the screen and stage.

Whatever Happened to Interracial Love?: Stories
by Kathleen Collins - Fiction, Short Stories

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO INTERRACIAL LOVE? is a never-before-published collection of stories from African-American artist and filmmaker Kathleen Collins, whose stories masterfully blend the quotidian and the profound in a personal, intimate way, exploring deep, far-reaching issues --- race, gender, family and sexuality --- that shape the ordinary moments in our lives. Her work seamlessly integrates the African-American experience in her characters’ lives, creating rich, devastatingly familiar, full-bodied men, women and children who transcend the symbolic, penetrating both the reader’s heart and mind.