She wrote about the world around her, mother nature, and religion.

At 11, Brooks wrote one poem every day, making a series of poetry books.

She started her formal education at a Chicago southside school, Forestville Elementary, where she faced social rejection.

After moving to Chicago, he worked as a janitor once they moved to Chicago, first at the “McKinley Music Publishing Company” and later at Targ and Dinner.

Brooks’ father was initially studying medicine at “Frisk University.” He dropped out of school after his father died.

Brooks was the oldest of two children and had a younger brother named Raymond Melvin.

In an interview in 1994, she labeled herself as an “organic Chicagoan.”

Her father, David, was a janitor who had hoped to become a doctor her mother, Keziah, was a teacher and classically trained pianist.

She moved to Chicago with her parents, Keziah and David, when she was five weeks old during the Great Migration.

Gwendolyn Elizabeth BrooksÂ was born in Topeka, Kansas, on June 7, 1917.

She was the first Black woman to be a poetry consultant to the Library of Congress and best known for her poetic descriptions of celebrations and struggles of Black city life. Brooks was the first African American to receive a Pulitzer Prize for her poetry for her book Annie Allen. Brooks mentored many new generation of young black poets.Gwendolyn Brooks was an American poet, writer, and teacher. The couple had two children Henry Lowington Blakely III (1940) and Nora Blakely (1951).ġ0) Ms.

Brooks married Henry Lowington Blakely, Jr. Brooks to read at a Library of Congress poetry festival in 1962.ĩ) In 1939 Ms. 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.Ĩ) President Kennedy invited 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. Brooks worked as a secretary to support herself while growing as a poet and honing her craft.ĥ) Ms Brooks received the Midwestern Writers’ Conference award in 1943.Ħ) A Street in Bronzeville, Gwendolyn Brooks’ first book of poetry was published in 1945 and was an instant success.ħ) Ms. by age 16 Brooks has published about 75 poems.Ĥ) Ms. Brooks was born in Kansas, but raised in Chicago.ģ) Brooks’ first poem was published in a children’s magazine when she was 13.

Brooks would have been 96 years old today.īooks by Gwendolyn Brooks* Fun Facts about Gwendolyn Brooks:ġ) Ms. Gwendolyn Brooks (7 June, 1917 – 3 December, 2000) was an award winning American poet.

Facts about gwendolyn brooks