found: African American National Biography, accessed December 6, 2014, via Oxford African American Studies Center database:(Austin, Doris Jean; fiction writer, essayist; born c.1949 in Mobile, Alabama, United States; published her only novel, After the Garden (1987); in her contributions to Essence magazine she uses autobiographical writing as a way to begin discussions of women's health issues and coping with sexual violence; published in Amsterdam News and New York Times Book Review; her short story "Room 1023" was published in the anthology Streetlights: Illuminating Tales of the Urban Black Experience published (1996) after her death; she was named a MacDowell Colony fellow and was awarded the DeWitt Wallace-Reader's Digest Award for Literary Excellence; was a member of the Harlem Writer's Guild; cofounded the New Renaissance Writer's Guild in New York and served as its executive director; taught fiction workshops at Columbia University (1989-1994); died in 1994 in New York)
