gwendolyn brooks
Published Works
- “A Street in Bronzeville” (1945), poetry collection
- “Annie Allen” (1949), poetry collection
- “Maud Martha” (1953), novel
- “Bronzeville Boys and Girls”, an illustrated collection of poems for -children (1956)
- “The Bean Eaters” (1960)
- “Selected Poems” (1963), poetry collection
- “In the Mecca” (1968)
- “Riot” (1969), poetry collection
- “Family Pictures” (1970)
- “Aloneness” (1971)
- “Report from Part One”, autobiography (1972)
- “The Tiger Wore White Gloves”, a children’s book (1974)
- “Beckonings” (1975)
- “Primer for Blacks” (1980)
- “To Disembark” (1981)
- “Young Poets” (1981)-“Mayor Harold Washington” (1983)
- “The Near-Johannesburg Boy” (1986)
- “Blacks” (1987)
- “Gottschalk and the Grand Tarantelle” (1988)
- “Winnie” (1988)
- "Children Coming Home" (1991)
Gwendolyn Brooks’ strong beliefs and principles are clear through her poetry, in which she expresses her views on many issues. She often reflects upon her life in urban Chicago as an African-American to find inspiration.
Born June 17, 1917 in Topeka, Kansas, Brooks began writing at a young age. When she was just a teen, she was published in magazines such as “American Childhood” and “Chicago Defender.” She graduated from Wilson Junior College in 1936 and in between her jobs she would attend a poetry workshop at the South Side Community Arts Center, where she developed strongly as a writer. She was published in “Poetry” magazine in 1944. Brooks was the oldest child in her family. Her mother, Keziah (Wims) Brooks was a school teacher and her father, David Andersen Brooks, worked as a janitor after his dream of becoming a doctor was unsuccessful, due to his need of further funds required to finish school.
Describing her own poetry as "poems I could take into a tavern, into the street, into the halls of a housing project." Brooks means her poems could be respected by a variety of people. When beginning a poem Brooks does not look to other poets for inspiration; she simply puts her thoughts on paper how they come to mind, showing her originality. She often brings ideas of Civil Rights into her poems and speaks strongly regarding her African-American heritage and culture. Gwendolyn Brooks’ poetry is influential and she states her beliefs without being afraid to present what she believes is morally acceptable, regarding issues such as abortion and child rearing.
Brooks was one of the first female African-Americans to be honored for her work in literature. She has had over twenty publishings, including novels, poetry collections, and children’s books and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize 1950 for her poetry collection titled “Annie Allan,” along with being predicted to succeed Carl Sandburg in 1968 as a poet raised in Illinois. Having the honor of first African-American woman chosen as poetry consultant for the Library of Congress, she was also initiated into the Women’s Hall of Fame in 1988. In 1989 the Poetry Society of America awarded Brooks the Frost Medal and she was granted the National Endowment for the Arts’ Lifetime Achievement Award. Over her years, she has been a teacher at numerous Chicago area schools and has influenced countless poets, inspiring them to give their poems an African American focus.