17 Feb 2021

Gwendolyn Brooks

Black Authors post, day 17.

Black Authors post, day 17.

Today’s author is poet, author, and teacher Gwendolyn Brooks.

Gwendolyn Brooks was born in 1917 in Topeka, Kansas. When she was an infant, her family moved to Chicago during the Great migration, and that remained her home for the rest of her life. She began writing at a very early age, and her parents encouraged her. She was 13 when her first published poem, “Eventide” was published in the children’s magazine American Childhood. By the time she graduated from high school, she was a regular contributor to the Chicago Defender’s “Light and Shadows” poetry column.

After she graduated from high school she attended a two year program at Wilson Junior college (now Kennedy-King College) to study to become a typist. She studied this pursuit so that she could support herself while she pursued her writing career. In 1939, Brooks met and married Henry Lowington Blakely, Jr.

In her early years of pursuing her writing career, Brooks received praise and encouragement from many famous poets and writers, including Langson Hughes, James Weldon Johnson, and Richard Wright. In 1945, Brooks published her first book of poetry, A Street in Bronzeville, with the help and encouragement of Richard Wright. The book was lauded by critics after its publication. Brooks received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1946.

Brooks published her second book of poetry, Annie Allen, in 1949. This book was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, making her the first African-American person to receive the Pulitzer. In 1953 Brooks published her first (and only) novel, Maud Martha.

Brooks went on to publish several more books of poetry. As she went on, her work started becoming more politically active and aware. She eventually left HarperCollins, the company that published her first books. Instead she started to publish with Broadside Press and Third World Press, both Black owned publishing companies. In 1972 she published her first biography, Report from Part One, and in 1996 published the second volume, Report from Part Two.

In her lifetime and after, Brooks was the recipient of many awards and honors. She was appointed Poet Laureate of Illinois in 1968. She was inducted in the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 1988. She was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1995. She has numerous schools, libraries and other educational spaces named in her honor in Chicago and the surrounding area. In 2012 she was commemorated on a US Postage stamp.

Gwendolyn Brooks died at her Chicago home at age 83.

Links to some of my favorite books by Gwendolyn Brooks:

A note: These Amazon links point to Amazon Smile, Amazon’s affiliate charity program. If you have not set up Amazon Smile, I encourage you to point it to an organization like In Black Ink

Some links: