Complex sentence: Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks (June 7,1917--December 3,2000) was an American poet and the first African-American writer to win a Pulitzer prize when she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1950.
Split into simpler sentences: Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks (June 7,1917--December 3,2000) was a poet. She was the first African-American writer to win a Pulitzer prize when she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1950.