Growing up, Gwendolyn Brooks did not have a fancy house but her home had a big bookshelf and her father recited poetry aloud in his deep, resonant voice. Inspired by the cadence, Gwendolyn loved memorizing poems and began writing her own when she was just seven. “She carefully strung words together like elegant jewels in perfect meter and rhyme.” Her poems were, from the beginning, about ordinary life—and about feelings. She filled notebooks, and even had a poem published in a magazine. Times were hard during the Great Depression, but Gwendolyn kept writing. She wrote throughout her high school years, and read classic poetry and wrote throughout her college years. A wife and mother in her South Side Chicago neighborhood, she tried her hand with new forms and new rhythms, capturing the stories she saw around her. A Street in Bronzeville was published in 1945, and Brooks continued to write the stories she felt inside herself—“stories of hardship and hope”—in poetry. In 1950, she won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for Annie Allen, becoming the first Black person to receive this outstanding recognition. Of course, Brooks continued to write and share her work with audiences; she served as the Poet Laureate of Illinois in 1968 and the Poet Laureat Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1985. In the picture book biography Exquisite: The Poetry and Life of Gwendolyn Brooks, Suzanne Slade offers a spirited, inspiring portrait of this gifted poet. Illustrator Cozbi A. Cabrera renders the energy and dedication at the heart of Brooks’ life in wonderful paintings that draw readers in beautifully. Ages 6-10. Abrams Books for Young Readers, New York, 2020.
An excellent companion to the above biography is Gwendolyn Brooks’ Bronzeville Boys and Girls, richly illustrated by Faith Ringgold. This collection of thirty-four poems captures both the particular qualities of Brooks’ Chicago neighborhood and the universal experiences of childhood. Ages 4-8. Harpercollins, 2015.
