Marita Golden (born April 28, 1950)[1] is an American novelist, nonfiction writer, professor,[2] and co-founder of the Hurston/Wright Foundation, a national organization that serves as a resource center for African-American writers.

[3] Marita Golden was born in Washington, D.C., in 1950 and attended the city's public schools.

After graduating from Columbia, she worked in publishing and began a career as a freelance writer, writing feature articles for many magazines and newspapers including Essence Magazine, The New York Times, and The Washington Post.

Golden's first book, Migrations of the Heart (1983), was a memoir based on her experiences coming of age during the 1960s and her political activism as well as her marriage to a Nigerian and her life in Nigeria, where she lived for four years.

[6] As a literary activist, she co-founded the Washington, D.C.–based African-American Writers Guild, as well as the Hurston/Wright Foundation, named in honor of Zora Neale Hurston and Richard Wright, which serves the national and international community of Black writers and administers the Hurston-Wright Legacy Award.