Marita Golden is the award-winning author of 23 works of fiction and nonfiction. Her most recent book is How to Become A Black Writer Creating and Honoring Black Stories That Matter. Among her novels, Long Distance Life was listed on the Washington Post Best-seller list, and her most recent novel, The Wide Circumference of Love, was named as a Best Book of the Year by National Public Radio.

As a teacher of writing, Marita has served on the Graduate Creative Writing faculties of George Mason University, Virginia Commonwealth University, Johns Hopkins University and served as Writer in Residence at The University of the District of Columbia. She has taught internationally, including in Lagos, Nigeria.

She is the recipient of many awards, including the Writers for Writers Award presented by Barnes & Noble and Poets and Writers, an award from the Authors Guild, and the Fiction Award for her novel After, awarded by the Black Caucus of the American Library Association.  

As a literary activist, in 1990, she co-founded the Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Foundation, which presents programs that support the international community of Black writers.