Walker, Alice - 1944–, African-American novelist and poet, b. Eatonon, Ga. She brings her travel experience in Africa and memories of the American
civil-rights movement to an examination of the experience of African Americans, mainly in the South, and of Africans. Among her works of fiction are the novels Meridian (1976), The Color Purple (1982; Pulitzer Prize), The Temple of My Familiar (1989), and By the Light of My Father's Smile (1994). Her short-story collections include You Can't Keep a Good Woman Down (1981) and the partially autobiographical The Way Forward Is with a Broken Heart (2000). She has also written poetry, such as Revolutionary Petunias and Other Poems (1973) and Her Blue Body Everything We Know: Earthling Poems 1965–1990 (1991). Many of her essays are collected in Living by the Word (1988) and Anything We Love Can Be Saved (1997). The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright© 2004, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products N.V. All rights reserved. |