Gwendolyn Brooks was born on 17 June 1917 in Topeka Kansas but quickly became a Chicago native within a few short months. Living in the cities south-side till her demise on 3 December 2000, Brooks poems had an authenticity of inner city Chicago life that could only received from the perspective of someone who has lived there their entire life. Prejudices and racial ideology that enveloped her life shaped a voice for her writing, which was strongly themed on racial identity and equality for urban blacks on Chicago’s south-side.
In many ways Gwendie; as her close friends would call her, became a central figure of twentieth century American poetry. Gwendie began writing at an early age with great proficiency, publishing her first poem “Eventide” at the age of thirteen for American Childhood. At the age of seventeen she was frequently publishing poems for the Chicago defender, eventually moving on to publish her first book of poems, A Street in Bronzeville in 1945. Later that year she was selected by the Mademoiselle magazine as one of the “Top Young Women of the Year” and she received her first Guggenheim fellowship. In 1950 Brooks became the first African American to beawarded the Pulitzer Prize and that same year won Poetry Magazines Eunice Tietjens Prize; both for her second book of poems Annie Allen (1950).
Brooks continued her career in writing, eventually going on to teach in many prestigious universities. Even though she is no longer with us physically, she shall live forever through her writing, which can still be seen in poetry anthologies used at universities to blogs on the Internet. Her impact on the literary society is undeniable and respect should be shown to the great Gwendolyn “Gwendie” Brooks.
In many ways Gwendie; as her close friends would call her, became a central figure of twentieth century American poetry. Gwendie began writing at an early age with great proficiency, publishing her first poem “Eventide” at the age of thirteen for American Childhood. At the age of seventeen she was frequently publishing poems for the Chicago defender, eventually moving on to publish her first book of poems, A Street in Bronzeville in 1945. Later that year she was selected by the Mademoiselle magazine as one of the “Top Young Women of the Year” and she received her first Guggenheim fellowship. In 1950 Brooks became the first African American to beawarded the Pulitzer Prize and that same year won Poetry Magazines Eunice Tietjens Prize; both for her second book of poems Annie Allen (1950).
Brooks continued her career in writing, eventually going on to teach in many prestigious universities. Even though she is no longer with us physically, she shall live forever through her writing, which can still be seen in poetry anthologies used at universities to blogs on the Internet. Her impact on the literary society is undeniable and respect should be shown to the great Gwendolyn “Gwendie” Brooks.