Biography-Criticism
Though Gwendolyn Brooks was born in Topeka, Kansas in 1917, she moved to the South side of Chicago after only a month, and so considers herself a native Chicagoan. Most of her poems and prose revolve around the city where she grew up, but she paints a different picture of Chicago than fellow Chicago writer, Richard Wright, infusing the South side with a previously unexplored beauty and dignity.

Brooks attended three different high schools in Chicago, the first of which was made up of all white students, the second of which was contrastingly all black, and the last of which was integrated. Her experiences at these schools helped shape her views on race at a relatively early age. In 1930, her first poem was published when she was only 13 years old. Brooks wrote steadily throughout her teen years, and had her first book of poetry, A Street in Bronzeville, published in 1945. With the publication of her first group of poems, Brooks became critically and commercially embraced. Her second book of poetry, Annie Allen, won her the Pulitzer Prize in 1950. She was the first African American to win. Brooks became a teacher in 1963 and relished the role, taking very seriously the responsibility of helping young people discover the poetry in their lives. Brooks wrote numerous volumes of poems and a few novels, concentrating most of her work on the lives of ordinary black people. 

In 1967 Brooks attended the Second Black Writers Conference at Fist University, which changed her writing style, and more importantly, her life. Listening to other writers at the conference, Brooks decided that her poetry should be more politically aware and should be more focused on the struggles of black America. She decided against continuing to have her poems published by large, predominately white, publishing houses, and opted instead to support small black publishing houses. Soon after, Brooks was named the Poet Laureate of the State of Illinois and combined her newfound political consciousness with the role of spokesperson. She continued educating and writing throughout the seventies, eighties and nineties until her death in 2000. 
 

Selected Bibliography

Works by the Author
A Street In Bronzeville (1945)
Annie Allen (1949) 
Maud Martha (1953) 
Bronzeville Boys and Girls (1956)
The Bean Eaters (1960)
We Real Cool (1966)
In the Mecca (1968) 
Riot (1969)
Family Pictures (1970)
Report From Part One (1972)
Report from Part Two (1996)
 

Works about the Author
Bloom, Harold. Gwendolyn Brooks. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers, 2000. 

Brown, Patricia L., Don L. Lee, and Francis Ward, eds. "To Gwen, with Love." Chicago, Johnson, 1971. Colorado Review n. s. 19, no. 1 (Spring and Summer 1989). 

Kent, George E. A Life of Gwendolyn Brooks. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1990. 

Kufrin, Joan. "Gwendolyn Brooks." Uncommon Women, 35-51. Piscataway, N.J.:New Century Publishers, 1981. 

Madhubuti, Haki R., ed. Say That the River Turns: The Impact of Gwendolyn Brooks. Chicago: Third World Press, 1987. 

Mootry, Maria K., and Gary Smith. A Life Distilled: Gwendolyn Brooks, Her Poetry and Fiction. Urbana: UP of Illinois, 1987. 

Shaw, Harry B. Gwendolyn Brooks. Boston: Twayne, 1980. 

Wright, Stephen Caldwell. On Gwendolyn Brooks: Reliant Contemplation. Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan Press, 1996.
 

Related Links
www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/a_f/brooks/brooks.htm
-Modern American Poetry Website

www.math.buffalo.edu/~sww/brooks/brooks.html
-The Circle Association’s tribute to Gwendolyn Brooks
 

This page was researched and submitted by Rebecca Pitts.  Please contact the editor with any questions or suggestions.