Gwendolyn Brooks biography

Part 1 – Gwendolyn Brooks was born June 7th, 1917 in Topeka, Kansas. However before she was 6 months old, her family moved to Chicago. When she was seven years old, her mother discovered her talent for writing. Her mom encouraged her writing. Her mom and dad were very strict and didn’t let her play with the neighborhood kids. As a result, she created her own fun by writing stories. At the age of 13, her poem appeared in a children’s magazine. She was a shy child and remained shy throughout her adult life.

Part 2- After graduating high school, she went on to Wilson Junior College. Her early poem appeared in the Chicago Defender. The newspaper was written mostly for African Americans. In 1945 her first book, A Street In Bronzeville was published. Her next book, Annie Allen received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1950. Brooks was the first African American to receive this award. She published her first novel, Maud Martha in ’53. 10 years later, she published Selected Poems. That year she also got a job at Columbia College in Chicago. In 1968, she published her next series, In The Mecca. Later that year, she was named poet laureate of Illinois. In 1976, she received the American Academy of Arts and Literature Award, becoming the first African American to win this award. In her lifetime, she has received 50 honorary doctorates from different colleges and universities. She received 2 Guggenheim Fellowships. Also she was Poetry Consultant of the Library of Congress. In 1990 she took a job as an English professor at Chicago State University.

Part 3- In 1967, she went to the Fisk University Writers Conference. She was met by the new generation of African American writers. This was a wake up call for Brooks, she became aware of how other blacks were feeling and started to write about it. She became less worried about form in her poems. Another thing you should know is she lived her whole life on Chicago’s South Side. This had an influence on her writing as one of the most impressive thing about her, was that she was able to capture her experience of growing up in her work.

Part 4- My character has inspired me because she turned everyday life experiences into works of literature. I would like the to be like her because she has achieved something other people may not even dream about. Despite her accomplishments, she remained humble and remembered where she came from.