"Before Gwendolyn Brooks became the first Black person to win the Pulitzer Prize, she was a little girl who dared to dream. Gwendolyn grew up surrounded by fine poetry. From an early age, she memorized the poems her father read to her and soon began to pen her own. Gwendolyn found inspiration all around her: in the colorful clouds overhead; in the people in her neighborhood; in loss, loneliness, and love. This picture book biography shares Gwendolyn's...

An introduction to the life and career of the beloved 20th-century American author, poet, and playwright.

"Author Kwame Alexander writes books for children of all ages. His book The Crossover won the Newbery Medal in 2015. Learn more about his writing success!"--

Describes how the twentieth-century African American poet Langston Hughes affirms his vocation as a writer through the composition of his famous 1921 poem "The Negro Speaks of Rivers."

"Read about Phillis Wheatley, Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks, Amiri Baraka, Jay Wright, Nikki Giovanni, Rita Dove"--Provided by publisher.

The author of such poems as I, To; Sing America; and The Negro Speaks of Rivers, Langston Hughes combined his experiences and emotions with the rhythms and themes he found in jazz music to create an exciting new style of poetry. Throughout his lifetime, Hughes won many awards and honors for his various books of poetry, novels, short stories, plays, children's books, autobiographies, and magazine articles. Despite always struggling to succeed financially,...

Examines the life of the Harlem poet who spent his career writing about the black experience in America.

"An exploration of the life and work of 20th-century American writer Langston Hughes, whose poetry is known for its accounts of the African American experience and its call to racial equality"--

A biography of an enslaved African woman who became the first African-American poet to be published.