Alice walker

Alice Walker (born February 9, 1944) is an American novelist, short story writer, poet, and social activist. She wrote the novel The Color Purple (1982), for which she won the National Book Award for hardcover fiction, and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. She also wrote the novels Meridian and The Third Life of Grange Copeland, among other works. An avowed feminist, Walker coined the term womanist to mean "A black feminist or feminist of color" in 1983.

Early life

Walker was born in Putnam County, Georgia, the youngest of eight children, to Willie Lee Walker and Minnie Lou Tallulah Grant. Her father, who was, in her words, "wonderful at math but a terrible farmer," earned only $300 ($4,000 in 2018 dollars) a year from sharecropping and dairy farming. Her mother supplemented the family income by working as a maid.

Career

Walker began publishing her fiction and poetry during the latter years of the Black Arts Movement in the 1960s. Her first novel, The Third Life of Grange Copeland, was published in 1970. In 1982, Walker published what has become her best-known work, The Color Purple. The novel follows a young, troubled black woman fighting her way through not just racist white culture but patriarchal black culture as well.

Activism

Walker's activism has been integral to her writing and life. She participated in the 1960s Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi. In 2003, Walker was one of over 50 signatories of a letter protesting against the Iraq War. She has also been active in environmental, feminist, and animal rights issues.

Legacy

Walker's influence on literature and activism has been profound. Her use of the term womanist has been adopted by many contemporary feminists. Her writings have been translated into more than two dozen languages, and her books have sold more than fifteen million copies.

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