Fun Facts Friday: Gwendolyn Brooks

Gwendolyn Brooks (7 June, 1917 – 3 December, 2000) was an award winning American poet. Ms. Brooks would have been 96 years old today.

Books by Gwendolyn Brooks*

Fun Facts about Gwendolyn Brooks:

1)      Ms. Brooks was born in Kansas, but raised in Chicago.

2)      Her nicknamed was “Gwendie”.

3)      Brooks’ first poem was published in a children’s magazine when she was 13. by age 16 Brooks has published about 75 poems.

4)      Ms. Brooks worked as a secretary to support herself while growing as a poet and honing her craft.

5)      Ms Brooks received the Midwestern Writers’ Conference award in 1943.

6)      A Street in Bronzeville, Gwendolyn Brooks’ first book of poetry was published in 1945 and was an instant success.

7)      Ms. Brooks received many honors in the following years including a Pulitzer Prize in poetry for Annie Allen making her the first African American to win it. Other honors included a Guggenheim Fellowship, Poetry magazine’s Eunice Tietjens Prize and her poem In The Mecca (1968) was nominated for the National Book Award for poetry.

8)      President Kennedy invited Ms. Brooks to read at a Library of Congress poetry festival in 1962.

9)      In 1939 Ms. Brooks married Henry Lowington Blakely, Jr. The couple had two children Henry Lowington Blakely III (1940) and Nora Blakely (1951).

10)  Ms. Brooks mentored many new generation of young black poets.

Books by Gwendolyn Brooks*

Zohar – Man of la Book
*Ama­zon links point to an affil­i­ate account