TWA Poets: Gwendolyn Brooks

1917 - 2000

Gwendolyn Brooks was born in Topeka, KS on June 7, 1917 was and raised in Chicago. Brooks sent early poems to Langston Hughes, publishing her first poem in bn American Childhood magazine. As a teenager, she regularly contributed to the Chicago Defender’s “Lights and Shadows” poetry column.

Brooks was the author of more than twenty books of poetry, includ…