Gwendolyn Brooks

Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks (June 7, 1917 – December 3, 2000) was an American poet and writer. She wrote about the ordinary lives of people, often in her own African American community called Bronzeville in Chicago, Illinois. In 1950 she won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for her book Annie Allen. She was the first African American winner of that prize.

Life and career

Brooks was born in Topeka, Kansas. When she was still a baby, her parents moved to Chicago. She lived there for the rest of her life. Her father was a janitor. Her mother was a schoolteacher and a pianist.

She started writing poetry when she was very young. Her mother told her to send some writing to the well-known poet Langston Hughes. He wrote to her, "You have talent. Keep writing! You'll have a book published one day." Many of her early poems were printed in the Chicago Defender, a newspaper written for African Americans in that city.

After winning the Pulitzer Prize for her poetry book Annie Allen in 1950, she wrote a novel called Maud Martha that came out in 1953. This novel tells the story of the main character's life. In the book Maud Martha "suffers prejudice not only from white people but also from lighter-skinned African Americans."

From the 1960s on, Brooks' poetry said more about the problems caused by racism in America. Her book In the Mecca spoke about the struggles of Black people to live in their poor neighborhoods. She wrote about the death of Malcolm X. She was active in the Black Power movement.

Brooks was named the official poet of the state of Illinois in 1968. In 1985 she was the Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. For these jobs, she went to many places. She went to prisons, hospitals and schools where she asked people to read poetry and to write their poems.

She died at her home in Chicago on December 3, 2000.

Books

A Street in Bronzeville 1945
Annie Allen 1949
Maud Martha 1953
Bronzeville Boys and Girls 1956
The Bean Eaters 1960
In the Mecca 1968
Riot 1969
Report from Part One: An Autobiography 1972
The Near-Johannesburg Boy, and Other Poems 1987
Winnie 1988

 Related pages 
List of poets from North America

References

Category:1917 births
Category:2000 deaths
Category:American poets