Paul Laurence Dunbar (June 27, 1872 – February 9, 1906) was an American poet, novelist, and playwright of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Born in Dayton, Ohio to parents who were enslaved in Kentucky before the American Civil War, Dunbar began to write stories and verse as a child and published his first poems at the age of 16 in a Dayton newspaper. He was also president of his high school’s literary society.