GWENDOLYN BROOKS

CHILDHOOD

• Born: June 7, 1917. Kansas
• Six weeks later - Chicago
• Strict parents-no play-few buds
• -Own world-reading and writing
• -Secluded- very shy

SCHOOLING

• 3 high schools
• -Racial prejudice
• -Social dynamics of US
• Wilson Jr College- 1936

WRITING

• 13yrs- 1st poem
• 16yrs- 75 poems
• Poems in Chicago Defender
• Poetry workshops
• Midwestern Writers Conference

"I felt I had to write. Even if I had never been published, I knew that I would go one writing, enjoying it and experiencing the challenge."

WRITING

• 1945-A Street in Bronzeville
• -Guggenheim Fellowship, etc.
• 1949-Annie Allen
• -Black girl growing up Chicago
• -1956-Pulitzer Prize-1st black

WRITING

• 1968-In the Mecca
• -National Book Award in Poetry
• Poetry Consultant (L of C)
• Fifty honorary doctorates
• Free verses, no poetic form

LIFE

• Married Henry Blakely-1939
• -2 kids, Henry Jr & Nora
• Worked as secretary
• University Professor
• Died: Dec 3, 2000 (83)

THE CRAZY WOMAN
I shall not sing a May song.A May song should be gay.
I'll wait until November And sing a song of gray.
I'll wait until November That is the time for me.
I'll go out in the frosty dark And sing most terribly.
And all the little people Will stare at me and say,
"That is the Crazy Woman Who would not sing in May."

SOURCES

• http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/gwendolyn_brooks/biography
• http://www.biography.com/people/gwendolyn-brooks-9227599#synopsis