Gwendolyn Brooks

Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks (1917–2000) was an American poet, author, and teacher born in Topeka, Kansas, and raised in Chicago's South Side, where she drew inspiration from inner-city African American life. She published her first poem at age 13, gained acclaim with A Street in Bronzeville (1945), and won the 1950 Pulitzer Prize for Annie Allen, becoming the first African American to receive it. U.S. Poet Laureate (1985–86), while mentoring young poets and shifting to Black-owned presses amid cultural nationalism.