'Read, write . . .and wait'

 

“There is no secret to success except hard work and getting something indefinable which we call 'the breaks.' In order for a writer to succeed, I suggest three things - read and write - and wait.” – Countee Cullen

 

Born in Kentucky in 1903, Cullen was a renowned member of the Harlem Renaissance writing movement.  He began writing in high school, where he edited the school newspaper and literary magazine and won a citywide poetry competition.  He studied at NYU where he earned numerous awards for his writing and scholarship, graduating Phi Beta Kappa in 1925.  Shortly thereafter his professional writing career was jump-started with the publication of his first acclaimed book of poetry, Color.      

 

After publication of two more award-winning volumes, Copper Sun and The Ballad of the Brown Girl, Cullen was firmly established as a leading light among African-American writers.   Also a novelist, children’s author and playwright, he was just starting to make a splash with his theatrical writings when he died suddenly at the age of 43 due to  complications from high blood pressure. 

 

“Remember,” Cullen said about writers, “we must be one thing or the other, an asset or a liability, the sinew in your wing to help you soar, or the chain to bind you to earth.”