Trigger Warning

Ralph Ellison was born on this day in 1914. Why not celebrate his birthday by writing a short story for submission?

Works

  • Invisible Man
  • Flying Home and Other Stories
  • Juneteenth
  • Three Days Before the Shooting…

Quotes

  • I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me.
  • When I discover who I am, I’ll be free.
  • Life is to be lived, not controlled, and humanity is won by continuing to play in face of certain defeat.
  • Education is all a matter of building bridges.
  • Had the price of looking been blindness, I would have looked.
  • I am not ashamed of my grandparents for having been slaves. I am only ashamed of myself for having at one time being ashamed.
  • America is woven of many strands. I would recognise them and let it so remain. Our fate is to become one, and yet many. This is not prophecy, but description.
  • Hibernation is a covert preparation for a more overt action.
  • Power doesn’t have to show off. Power is confident, self-assuring, self-starting and self-stopping, self-warming and self-justifying. When you have it, you know it.
  • There are few things in the world as dangerous as sleepwalkers.

Learn more about the life of Ralph Ellison.

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