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Warm thanks to Jennifer Ryan-Bryant for organising the articles, and assembling this Focus section. Some of the articles, and biographical reminiscences by Austin Straus, were presented at a session on Coleman at the 130th MLA Annual Convention in Vancouver on 10 January 2015. (Ed.).
Wanda Coleman (1946-2013) was born in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles. Her mother cleaned houses and worked as a seamstress, while her father worked in journalism and advertising; Coleman credits him with teaching her how to typeset and lay out stories. As a child, she did not enjoy school, preferring to write stories and read on her own. Although she attended California State College, Los Angeles City College, and Stanford, she did not receive a traditional college degree. In her twenties, she worked in a series of low-paying jobs that included medical transcriptionist, waitress, magazine editor, and proofreader while caring for her three children and doing her own writing...