Gwendolyn Brooks Research Paper

Gwendolyn Brooks was the first African American poet to win a Pulitzer Prize, since then she has received many awards, fellowships and honorary degrees (Hinton). Gwendolyn Brooks was born June 7, 1917 in Topeka Kansasas, to Kevin and Keziah Brooks. Shortly after, her family moved to Chicago, Illinoi. Brooks attended Hyde Park High School, the leading white high school in the city, later transferred to the all-black high school, Wendell Phillips High School and finally to the integrated Inglewood High School (Lee). These three institutions gave her a rounded perspective and understanding of racial dynamics in the United States, which is reflected throughout her poetry (Israel and Lawlor 10). Gwendolyn Brooks’ writing career began early in her life. Publishing her first poem, “Eventide” in American Childhood Magazine at the age of thirteen. By the time she reached the age of seventeen, she was frequently published by the Chicago Defender, a newspaper largely attracting the black population in Chicago. That same year, 1934, Brooks had published almost one hundred poems for the Chicago

She was selected as one of the “Ten Young Woman of the Year” by Mademoiselle Magazine, she was also awarded her first Guggenheim Fellowship. Her second book of poetry, Annie Allen was published in 1949 (Lee). She was awarded Poetry magazine's Eunice Tietjens Prize. In 1962 Brooks was invited by President John Kennedy to read at the Library of Congress Poetry Festival and in 1985 she was appointed poetry consultant to the Library of Congress (Israel and Lawlor 10). Apart from being the first African American to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize, another significant milestone in her career was receiving the highest award in the humanities given by the Federal Government, The National Endowment for the Humanities as the 1994 Jefferson Lecturer(Gwendolyn Brooks: Poet From