American poet and Library of Congress Consultant in Poetry (1985), Gwendolyn Brooks, was born into a family where her future success was practically guaranteed -- not due to money or family prominence, but due to grim determination.

Her mother, Keziah Wims, was a former school teacher, and her father was the son of a runaway slave. Her father wanted to study medicine, but had no money to even apply to medical school. He had to give up his dreams and work as a janitor. Clearly, he wanted better for his children, and both his and his wife's hopes were pinned on their first child, Gwendolyn, who was born in Kansas in 1917.

When Brooks was less than two months old, her family moved to Chicago, Illinois, where she spent her childhood. Her home and family were nurturing and encouraging to the creative child. She experienced a share of racial discrimination while she was in school, but that was countered by full support at home. Rather than discourage her interest in reading and writing, her parents were delighted, and purchased bookshelves and a desk for the young writer. Her mother made sure Brooks took advantage of literary events in Chicago, and she met Langston Hughes and James Weldon Johnson.

Her work was first published when she was only thirteen. She submitted one of her poem's to a children's magazine and it was accepted. By the time she was sixteen she had published more than seventy-five poems. Her poetry style varies, she wrote traditional sonnets and ballads, but also employed blues rhythms and free verse. Much of her work centers on life in the inner city, and those who live there.

Following high school graduation, Brooks enrolled at Wilson Junior College, graduating in 1936. After this she took a series of typing jobs, but continued to write poetry and participate in poetry workshops. One of the latter was particularly significant to Brooks' future. It was there that she met Inez Cunningham Stark, who came from an influential literary background and further encouraged Brooks to write.

By 1943, Brooks had won an award for poetry from the Midwestern Writers' Conference. Her first poetry collection, A Street in Bronzeville, was published in 1945, and was praised by critics. Right on the heels of that award came her first Guggenheim Fellowship. She was also named one of the "Ten Young women of the Year" in Mademoiselle magazine. In 1950, she became the first African-American to receive the Pulitzer Prize for poetry. In 1962, President John F. Kennedy invited Brooks to read at a Library of Congress poetry festival. Shortly after that event, Brooks began a teaching career in writing.

During her career she taught at Columbia College Chicago, Northeastern Illinois University, Elmhurst College, Columbia University, Clay College of New York, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her book-length poem, The Mecca, deals with a period of her life when she felt she had rediscovered her black heritage. The poem was nominated for the National Book Award for poetry. In 1968, Brooks was named Poet Laureate of Illinois, and in 1985 she was appointed Consultant of Poetry for the Library of Congress. She is also the 1994 recipient of the prestigious National Endowment for the Humanities' Jefferson Lecturer. Additionally, during her career she has been awarded more than seventy-five honorary degrees from colleges and universities all over the world.

Her personal life was also productive and busy. In 1939, she married Henry Blakely. The couple had two children, Henry, Junior, and Nora. Late in life Brooks developed cancer, and she died in December 2000, in Chicago. She was eighty-three years old.