Nella Larsen

Nellallitea "Nella" Larsen was an American novelist. Working as a nurse and a librarian, she published two novels, Quicksand (1928) and Passing (1929), and a few short stories. Though her literary output was scant, she earned recognition by her contemporaries. 

A revival of interest in her writing has occurred since the late 20th century, when issues of racial and sexual identity have been studied. Her works have been the subjects of numerous academic studies, and she is now widely lauded as "not only the premier novelist of the Harlem Renaissance, but also an important figure in American modernism." 

Larsen was born to a Danish mother and a West Indian father who died when she was two years old. She studied for a year at Fisk University, where she first experienced life within an all-black community, and later audited classes at the University of Copenhagen (1910–12) in Denmark. Settling in New York City, she graduated from nursing school and also became a children’s librarian. Her marriage to a black physics professor and her friendship with Carl Van Vechten brought her social prominence. In 1933 she and her husband were divorced, and after 1941 Larsen worked as a nurse in a Brooklyn hospital until her death. 

Larsen’s first story was published in 1926. Her first novel, Quicksand (1928), concerns a young, headstrong biracial woman who seeks love, acceptance, and a sense of purpose, only to be mired in an emotional morass of her own creation. Her second novel, Passing (1929), centres on two light-skinned women, one of whom, Irene, marries a black man and lives in Harlem, while the other, Clare, marries a white man but cannot reject her black cultural ties. In 1930 Larsen became the first black woman to be awarded a Guggenheim fellowship. She never published again.