She combined traditional European poetry styles with the African American experience. She was an expert at the language of poetry. She also wrote poems about the struggles of black women.īut her skill was more than her ability to write about struggling black people. Her poems described conditions among the poor, racial inequality and drug use in the black community. Gwendolyn Brooks wrote many poems about being black during the nineteen forties and nineteen fifties. She was known around the world for using poetry to increase understanding about black culture in America. She had more than twenty books published. Gwendolyn Brooks wrote hundreds of poems during her lifetime. She was the first African American to win a Pulitzer Prize for Literature.

Today we tell about the life of award-winning poet Gwendolyn Brooks. And I'm Sarah Long with the VOA Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Gwendolyn Brooks, 1917-2000: The Poet Was the First African American to Win a Pulitzer Prize for Literatureĭownload MP3 (Right-click or option-click the link.)

Brooks is known for writing about