Gwendolyn Brooks was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for her book Annie Allen on May 1, 1950, making her the first African-American to receive the award. Annie Allen told the story of an African American girl’s passage from childhood to womanhood.

Brooks moved to Chicago at a young age and developed a passion for reading and writing. She was thirteen when her first poem, “Eventide,” appeared in American Childhood. By the time Brooks was seventeen, she frequently published poems for the Chicago Defender. After these successes, Brooks wrote poetry for her first book, A Street in Bronzeville.

She would later go on to write other books including Children Coming Home, To Disembark and The Bean Eaters. Many of Brooks’ works focused on the civil rights activism of the 1960s.

As a result of her literary contributions, Brooks’ received numerous awards, including a National Medal of the Arts in 1995. She also was named Poet Laureate of Illinois in 1968 and Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1985. She also received the Frost Medal, the Shelley Memorial Award and fellowships from the Academy of American Poets and the Guggenheim Foundation.

Learn more:
Poetry Foundation: Gwendolyn Brooks
Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry