Gwendolyn Brooks (1917–2000) was born in Topeka, Kansas, and raised in Chicago. In 1950 she became the first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, awarded for Annie Allen (Harper, 1949). Her debut, A Street in Bronzeville (Harper, 1945), drew early recognition. Her poem We Real Cool is among the most widely anthologized in American literature. From 1968 she mentored younger Black poets connected to the Black Arts Movement. She served as Poet Laureate of Illinois from 1968 until her death and as Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1985.
