HUNTER-LATTANY, Kristin

Born 12 September 1931, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Daughter of George L. and Mabel Manigault Eggleston; married Joseph Hunter, 1952; John I. Lattany, 1968; children: two sons

One of the most prominent writers for the often-neglected audience of African American youth, Kristin Hunter-Lattany provides a message of optimism and hope in her stories of inner city black life. From a middle class background herself, Hunter-Lattany was greatly influenced by the poorer inhabitants of Philadelphia among whom she grew up in the 1930s and 1940s; it is they who later became the focus of most of her fiction. Known for their realism and vitality, Hunter-Lattany's novels and short stories for both adolescents and adults celebrate the positive values of black culture and encourage unity, self-reliance, ingenuity, and courage in the face of adversity. In the tradition of the women writers of the Harlem Renaissance, Hunter-Lattany explores particularly the African American female experience and provides new instruction and inspiration for contemporary black women writers.

The only child of a school principal father and a schoolteacher mother, Hunter-Lattany became an avid reader and writer in early childhood, commenting later: "I believe these circumstances—onliness, loneliness and resultant fantasizing and omnivorous reading—are the most favorable for producing writers." Hunter-Lattany wrote poetry and articles for school publications, and in 1946, at fourteen, she began a teenage social column for the Philadelphia edition of the Pittsburgh Courier. Continuing as a columnist and feature writer for the Courier until 1952, she later drew on her coverage of a story on the annexation by the city of Camden, New Jersey, of the all-black town of Lawnside to provide the basis for her novel The Lakestown Rebellion (1978). The novel depicts a black community's unified resistance to the construction of an interstate highway that is to run through their town.

Hunter-Lattany received a B.S. in education from the University of Pennsylvania in 1951. At her parents' request, she taught elementary school but quit in less than a year to pursue a writing career. In 1952 she began working as an advertising copywriter with the Lavenson Bureau of Advertising in Philadelphia, the first of several similar positions that allowed her enough stability and spare time to continue to write. In 1955 she won a national competition for a television documentary produced by CBS, entitled "A Minority of One." This recognition launched her career.

Hunter-Lattany began her first novel, God Bless the Child (1964), while she was still at Lavenson. A poignant tale of a young black woman's struggle to raise herself and her family out of poverty, it establishes many themes for Hunter-Lattany's later works, particularly the importance of inner strength and self-sufficiency. As in much of her later fiction, Hunter-Lattany explores the dangers and vitality of the city and the complex social and economic forces that oppress families there. The novel won the prestigious Philadelphia Athenaeum award in 1964, went into a third printing within a month of its publication date, and had subsequent softcover printings throughout the 1970s.

While working as an information officer for the city of Philadelphia, Hunter-Lattany produced The Landlord (1966), her most successful novel at the time. In this comical story about a young white landlord of an inner city tenement building and his relationships with his tenants, Hunter-Lattany uses slapstick, caricature, and parody to explore class distinctions and racial tensions. The "lightness" with which she treats serious issues here, along with her exaggerated, seemingly stereotypical portrayals of blacks, led to mixed reviews. Hunter-Lattany was praised nonetheless for her uniqueness of expression, and in the book was adapted into a well-received film starring Joe Pesci.

The success of Hunter-Lattany's witty, comic style in The Landlord prompted her publishers to suggest she write books for children and adolescents. The Soul Brothers and Sister Lou (1968), inspired by young street singers who performed in an alley below Hunter-Lattany's apartment, tells the story of a young singing group's struggle for survival and success. With honesty and compassion, Hunter-Lattany tackles such issues as police violence, gang warfare, and racial injustice as her protagonists demonstrate courage and strength of character. Widely praised for its affirmation of black culture and for providing hopeful alternatives to the violence and deprivation of the ghetto, Soul Brothers received many honors including the National Council on Interracial Books for Children award (1968) and the Lewis Carroll Shelf award (1971).

Hunter-Lattany married for the second time in 1968 (changing her name from Kristin Hunter to its current hyphenated state) and became a stepmother to her husband's two sons. She credits them with greatly influencing her understanding of children and encouraging her works for young people. Among these are Guests in the Promised Land (1973), a collection of short stories that won several awards, and the critically acclaimed Lou in the Limelight (1981), a sequel to Soul Brothers.

Since early in her career, Hunter-Lattany's poems, short stories, book reviews, and articles appeared in such publications as Philadelphia Magazine, Philadelphia Bulletin, Nation, Essence, Rogue, Black World, Good Housekeeping, and Seventeen. She was writer in residence at Emory University in 1979 and taught English and creative writing at the University of Pennsylvania from 1972 to 1995, when she retired; she held the title of senior lecturer in English at that university from 1983 to her retirement.

Hunter-Lattany's more recent work includes the novel Kin-folks, published in 1996. She continues to create realistic and optimistic depictions of African American urban life, similar to Terry McMillan's Waiting to Exhale. Kinfolks, written for adults, is the story of two African American women who, when their children meet, fall in love, and decide to marry, discover that the intended bride and groom are really sister and brother, sharing the same father. This circumstance was brought about by the political statement both mothers made in the 1960s when they chose to become single mothers as a show of support for the Black Power movement. The rest of the novel deals with African American life after the Civil Rights movement. The Charlotte (North Carolina) Post called Kinfolks a black First Wives Club. There are many lessons to be learned from the humorous yet touching novel, but the most weighty is the importance of fatherhood, as she believes this theme reflects her lack of close family ties and subsequent search for substitutes for her family. Hunter-Lattany likes to think of her young adult readers as an extended family.

In 1996 the Philadelphia Congress of the National Political Congress of Black Women presented Hunter-Lattany with the Chisolm award (named for the National Political Congress of Black Women's president, Shirley Chisolm) in honor of her contributions in literature and the arts. She also won the 1996 Moonstone Lifetime Achievement award. She won the 1981 Drexel Children's Literature Citation, and fellowships from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts (1981-82 and 1985-86) and the Pennsylvania State Council on the Arts (1983-84). Hunter-Lattany is a member of the Authors Guild, the Authors League of America, the National Council of Teachers of English, and the University of Pennsylvania Alumni Association.

In 1999 Hunter-Lattany was collaborating with her husband, John Lattany, on a memoir of successful lives of African Americans in the rural South. They hoped to offer suggestions for the present and the future for African Americans who are struggling to succeed. She was also working on a screenplay for a comedy and was considering another novel. Urban America, however, may no longer be her focus as she feels there is so much bad news emanating from the ghetto, and she prefers her writing to be optimistic.

Other Works:

Boss Cat (1971). The Pool Table War (1972). Uncle Daniel and the Raccoon (1972). The Survivors (1975).

Bibliography:

Harris, T., From Mammies to Militants: Domestics in Black American Literature (1982). Tate, C., ed., Black Women Writers at Work (1983).

Reference works:

Black Writers (1989). CANR (1984). CLR (1978). Contemporary Novelists (1991). DLB (1984). FC (1990). Oxford Companion to Women's Writing in the United States (1995). SATA (1977, 1990). TCCW (1989). Writers Directory (1990).

Other references:

Black Literature Forum (Winter 1986). Philadelphia Inquirer (24 Nov. 1974). Philadelphia Tribune (2 Mar. 1996, 15 Apr. 1996).

Web sites:

http://www.alternet.com/dunnovelhtm, Donnette Donbar's Novel Ideas (2 July 1999). http://www.bookpage.com/ala/9702bp/blackhistory/womenfiction.html (3 July 1999).http://www.english.upenn.edu/~wh/archive96/11readers.html (3 July 1999). http://www.release2-0.com/BB/readerscircle/lattany/guide.htm (2 July 1999).

—MARY E. HARVEY,

UPDATED BY HEIDI HARTWIG DENLER