Marita Bonner

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Manta Bonner was born on June 16, 1899, in Boston, Massachusetts. Her mother, Mary Anne Bonner (maiden name Noel), was a homemaker, and her father, Joseph Andrew Bonner, was a machinist. She had three siblings: Bernice, Joseph, and Andrew (who died in childhood). Bonner attended Brookline High School and enrolled in Radcliffe College in 1918, where she majored in English and comparative literature. Because African-American students were not allowed to reside on campus, Bonner lived at home during her years at Radcliffe. She began teaching at Cambridge High School while still in college and continued to teach after graduating in 1922. Bonner taught English at Bluefield Colored Institute in Bluefield, Virginia, from 1922 to 1924, and at Armstrong High School in Washington, D.C., from 1925 to 1930.

Bonner's writing career began in 1925 with the publication of her short story "The Hands—A Story" in Opportunity magazine. Her essay "On Being Young—a Woman—and Colored'' was published in Crisis magazine later that year. She continued to publish numerous short stories, essays, plays, and reviews in Opportunity and Crisis through 1941. While in Washington, D.C., Bonner became associated with African-American writers of the Harlem Renaissance (a term used to describe a period of flowering of African-American literature during the 1920s) and was a member of the "S" Street Salon, a gathering of African-American writers in the home of poet Georgia Douglas Johnson.

Although Bonner was married to William Almy Occomy in 1930, critics generally continued to refer to her by her maiden rather than her married name. The couple moved to Chicago, where they raised
three children, William Almy, Jr., Warwick Gale Noel, and Marita Joyce. Bonner's last published story, "One True Love," appeared in Crisis magazine in 1941 In the 1940s, Bonner devoted more time to child rearing and became increasingly involved in the religion of Christian Science. She eventually went back to teaching English at Phillips High School in Chicago from 1950 to 1963. Bonner died of injuries from a fire in her apartment on December 6, 1971.

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