On Gwendolyn Brooks

the long version

On Gwendolyn Brooks: Reliant Contemplation collects reviews and essays on the art and career of Gwendolyn Brooks, the first Black author to win the Pulitzer Prize. While she is best known for her poetry, Brooks's essays, fiction, and children's collections have also drawn critical acclaim and are discussed in this volume. Brooks began her literary career writing verses for the Chicago Defender, a Black community newspaper serving the neighborhood in which she has spent much of her life. From this community come many of the images, parlances, and cadences that richly flavor her work. In 1968, she succeeded Carl Sandburg as Poet Laureate of Illinois. From her Pulitzer Prize-winning volume A Street in Bronzeville to later works such as In the Mecca, Brooks is recognized as an important and accessible voice in contemporary American letters. She has received two Guggenheim Fellowships and has served as Poetry Consultant to the Library of Congress. . Wright's collection gathers essays and reviews from a remarkable range of sources, from long out-of-print journals to the New Yorker. Similarly, it draws from an eclectic group of writers, ranging from Eleanor Holmes Norton to Louis Simpson. Its essays and reviews reveal Brooks as a poet who, despite her vast knowledge and classical leanings, remains a voice of and for the people.