Gwendolyn Brooks Biography

Poet

Gwendolyn Brooks was a Chicago poet, the poet laureate of Illinois and the first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize for poetry. Brooks's first collection of poems, A Street in Bronzeville, was published in 1945 to widespread critical acclaim. Her 1949 collection, Annie Allen, won the 1950 Pulitzer for poetry; she was the first black poet, male or female, to win the prize. During her long and celebrated career she taught at a number of colleges, raised a family and published poems, a novel (1953's Maud Martha) and three books of memoirs. In 1968 she succeeded Carl Sandburg as the poet laureate of Illinois, a post she held until her death. Her poetry collections include Selected Poems (1963), Riot (1969), The Near Johannesburg Boy and Other Poems (1986) and Blacks (1987).

Other poets include Langston Hughes, Rita Dove and Nikki Giovanni.