Reference Reviews

Reference for Students

Concise Major 21st Century Writers: A Selection of Sketches from Contemporary Authors. Edited by Tracey L. Matthews. Detroit, Mich.: Thomson Gale, 2006. 5 vols. 3890 p. $489.00. ISBN 0-7876-7539-3.

Students researching information on any one of the 700 authors featured here will find novelists, short story writers, nonfiction writers, poets, dramatists, genre writers, children’s literature and young adult authors. Included are influential authors at the turn of the 21st century as well as emerging authors who will become more significant in the future. They represent 60 nationalities and ethnicities. For each, birth and death year is given, personal information such as place of birth, spouses and where educated is listed. The short paragraph on careers includes positions other than writing, and awards and honors. The “Sidelights” section has much more detail. The articles close with lists of novels, nonfiction and other information, and biographical and critical sources found are listed in books and periodicals. When the person is deceased, students can find their obituaries. It was of particular interest to find Snicket, Lemony 1970- listed with the parenthetic “pseudonym for Daniel Handler” with reference to his adult fiction. Appendixes include a “Nationality/Ethnicity Index” and a “Genre/Subject Index” both of which would be helpful to school librarian or teacher looking for specific authors to recommend to students.