Contemporary Authors is an annually updated reference work published by Gale Cengage. It provides biographical details on over 120,000 writers in all genres whose works have been published in the English language. Contemporary Authors was originally released as a series of books, but is now available in an online version.
Authors can submit information about themselves, but they must meet certain inclusion criteria to receive a profile in Contemporary Authors. Authors whose works have only been published by vanity presses are generally excluded.
The first edition of Contemporary Authors was released in 1962. The series is held in many libraries, and was honored by the American Library Association in 1985 as one of the "most distinguished reference titles" of the preceding 25 years.
Famous quotes containing the words contemporary and/or authors:
“The contemporary thing in art and literature is the thing which doesn’t make enough difference to the people of that generation so that they can accept it or reject it.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
“Well, most men have bound their eyes with one or another handkerchief, and attached themselves to some of these communities of opinion. This conformity makes them not false in a few particulars, authors of a few lies, but false in all particulars. Their every truth is not quite true. Their two is not the real two, their four not the real four; so that every word they say chagrins us and we know not where to set them right.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)