(born 1929) African American novelist of Caribbean (Barbadian) ancestry who emerged onto the literary scene with her autobiographical novel Brown Girl, Brownstones (1959).

Much of Marshall’s writing deals with themes of estrangement of contemporary African Americans from their cultural roots and the need to journey back and deal with the ancestors and heritage to find renewal, questions that reverberate with the works of Gloria Naylor, Toni Morrison and others. Among her major works are The Chosen Place, The Timeless People (1969), Praisesong for the Widow (1983) and Daughters (1991).