Post WWII: Gwendolyn Brooks

• Black author
• Kansas City --> Chicago
• Writes about poverty
• Usually black characters: Bean eaters, New Johannesburg Boy, To those of my sisters
• First black author to win a Pulitzer Prize
• Poetry consultant for the Library of Congress
• Many of Brooks's works display:
• a political consciousness
• especially those from the 60's and later
• several of her poems reflect the civil rights movement
• Bridge the gap between the academic poets of her generation in the 40's and the young black militant writers of the 60's
• Born in Topeka, KS
• Brooks was13 when her first published poem, "Eventide" appeared in American Childhood
• At 17 she was publishing poems frequently in the Chicago Defender
• Chicago's black population newspaper
• Her poems focused on urban blacks, that would be published in her first collection, A Street in Bronzeville.
• Describes her work as "folksy narrative."
• She varied her forms, using free verse, sonnets, and other models.
• Published one novel in the 1950's
• Maud Martha
• Later works took a far more political stance
• Just as her first poems reflected the mood of their era
• Her later works mirrored their age by displaying "an intense awareness of the problems of color and justice."
• Some say they are more about bitterness than bitter in themselves
• Activism and interest in nurturing black literature
• Caused her to leave Harper & Row in favor of fledgling black publishing companies
• 1970's - Dudly Randall's Broadside Press
• Did not regret having supported small publishers dedicating to the needs of the black community
• Believed that some books only got small notability because literary establishments didn't want to encourage Black publishers.