The work provides short biographies and bibliographies of contemporary and near-contemporary writers and is a major source of information on over 116,000 living and deceased authors from around the world.
[2] Entries in Contemporary Authors consist of a biography of the writer and bibliographies of their work and secondary sources covering it.
[4] Writing need not be a person's primary occupation for them to be covered in Contemporary Authors; Martin Luther King Jr. and Bear Bryant have entries even though they are not mainly known as writers.
[6] Gale also provides an online version of Contemporary Authors, which includes updates to previously published biographies, expanded entries, award listings, and other information.
[14] In 1985, American Library Association named Contemporary Authors one of the "most distinguished reference titles" of the preceding 25 years.