Born 1917 in
Kansas.
African American poet whose work typically gives voice to the everyday struggles and triumphs of being an urban Black American. She has a unique talent for making ordinary lives seem extraordinary and colorful. Brooks was the first American poet to win the Pulitzer Prize (for Annie Allen) and once served as poet laureate of Illinois.
Her other titles include:
A Street in Bronzeville (1945)
Maud Martha (novel, 1953)
Bronzeville Boys and Girls (children's book, 1956)
The Bean Eaters (1960)
Selected Poems (1963)
In the Mecca (1968)
Report from Part One (memoir, 1972)
Primer for Blacks (1980)
Young Poet's Primer (1980)
To Disembark (1981)
The Near-Johannesburg Boy, and Other Poems (1986)
Blacks (1987)
Winnie (1988)
and Children Coming Home (1991)
Report from Part Two (memoir, 1996)