“I
have fallen in love with the imagination. And if you fall in love with the
imagination, you understand that it is a free spirit. It will go anywhere, and
it can do anything.” – Alice Walker
Novelist, short story writer, poet,
and activist, Walker was born on this date in 1944 the daughter of a poor
Georgia farm family. Growing up with an
oral tradition, listening to stories from her grandfather (who was the model
for the character of Mr. in her award-winning book The Color Purple),
Walker began school at age 4 and writing at age 8.
She wrote the critically acclaimed Color
Purple in 1982 and rocketed to fame.
The book won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction,
was made into an Academy Award-winning movie, and ultimately did a 3-year run
as a play on Broadway. The story
follows a young troubled
black woman fighting her way through not just racist
white culture but patriarchal black culture as well.
Walker actually started her writing
career as a short story writer and poet and had her first book of poetry
published while still in college. In
addition to her writing, she’s been a leading figure on behalf of Civil and
Equal Rights in both the U.S. and internationally and has been awarded a major
international awards recognizing her work on behalf of human rights and peace
initiatives.
“Deliver me from writers who say the
way they live doesn't matter,” she said.
“I'm not sure a bad person can write a good book. If art doesn't make us
better, then what on earth is it for.”
Share A Writer’s
Moment with a friend by clicking the g+1 button below.
No comments:
Post a Comment