Brooks, Gwendolyn

Impact on the world

Won the 1950 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for 'Annie Allen,' becoming the first African American to win a Pulitzer Prize in any category, a milestone reached on a day so financially difficult for her family that their electricity had been shut off; she went on to become the first Black woman appointed poetry consultant to the Library of Congress, the forerunner to the U.S. Poet Laureate position.

Life & background

Raised in Chicago's Bronzeville neighborhood from infancy, Brooks began writing poetry as a young child and had published roughly 75 poems by age 16, receiving early encouragement and critique from James Weldon Johnson, Langston Hughes, and Richard Wright. Her 1949 collection 'Annie Allen,' which used the classical epic form to chronicle the coming-of-age of an ordinary Black girl in Bronzeville, won the 1950 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, making Brooks the first African American to win a Pulitzer in any category; she learned of the win on a day the family's electricity had been shut off for nonpayment, and worried what reporters' camera equipment would reveal the next day until an anonymous benefactor quietly paid the bill overnight. She went on to write the novella 'Maud Martha' and further acclaimed collections including 'The Bean Eaters,' which contains her best-known poem, 'We Real Cool,' served as Illinois Poet Laureate for over three decades until her death, and in 1985 became the first Black woman appointed poetry consultant to the Library of Congress, the precursor position to U.S. Poet Laureate. Her South Side Chicago home became an informal literary salon where younger writers including James Baldwin gathered for debate and discussion.

Sources

1. Encyclopædia Britannica; NPR (Remembering Gwendolyn Brooks at 100)