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Women in Poetry
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Maya Angelou.  Marguerite Ann Johnson or Maya Angelou was born on April 4,
1928 in St. Cloud Minnesota. Angelou was the second child of Bailey Johnson and
Vivian Johnson. Angelou was best known for her series of 6 autobiographical
volumes that focus on her childhood and adult experiences. Her most acclaimed
work, “I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings” brought her international recognition.
Throughout the years, Angelou has been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for her
“Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ‘Fore I Die” and has been awarded over 30
honorary degrees. Angelou was also highly respected as a spokesperson for Black
people and women. Her books, which mainly centered on themes such as racism and
identity, are frequently used in schools and universities internationally.
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Alice Walker.
Alice Malsenior Walker was born on February 9, 1944 in
Eatonton, Georgia. Walker was the eight and last child of Willie Lee and Minnie
Walker. Walker was best known for her novel The Color Purple. Her first book of
poetry was written when she was a senior at Sarah Lawrence. She then took a
brief hiatus from writing before resuming her writing career when she became an
editor. Her first novel, “The Third Life of Grange Copeland” was published in
1970. Walker has also written a number of novels and published her collections
of short stories and poetry. Walker is a very respected figure in liberal
political community for voicing out the struggles of black people, especially
women and their lives in a violent, racist and sexist society. Throughout the
years, she received a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for “The Color Purple” and
multiple awards for her works.
Emily Dickinson.
Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was born is December 10, 1830 in
Amherst, Massachusetts. Dickinson was born in a successful family with strong
community ties. Although she was rather a prolific private poet, he poems were
only published fewer than a dozen during her lifetime and the publishers
usually altered her work to fit the convention poetic rules. Dickinson’s first
volume was published 4 years after her death when her sister Lavinia discovered
her collection of nearly eighteen hundred poems. Her poems consist of theme
such as morbidity and gospel poems that reflecting the teachings of Jesus
Christ. Some of her recognized poems are
“A Light Exists In Spring”, “Because I Could Not Stop For Death” and “I Dreaded
That First Robin”.
Anne Sexton.
Anne Gray Harvey or Anne Sexton was born on November 9, 1928
in Newton, Massachusetts. Sexton was a daughter to Mary Gray Staples and Ralph
Churchill Harvey. Sexton suffered from severe mental illness throughout her
life. It was her long-term therapist, Dr. Martin Ome who encouraged her to take
up poetry. Her mentor, W.D. Snodgrass, is the one who supported Sexton’s poetic
career. His poem “Heart’s Needle” gave inspiration for her with its theme of
separation. The theme of her poetry is mainly about her suicidal tendencies,
battle against depression and the relationship about her husband. Sexton is
considered the modern model of the confessional poet. She openly wrote about
the struggles of women such as menstruation, abortion and other certain topics
such as adultery, incest and drug abuse. Sexton won the Pulitzer Prize for
poetry in 1967.
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Sylvia Plath.
Sylvia Plath was born on October 27, 1932 in Boston,
Massachusetts to Aurelia Schober Plath and Otto Plath, a biology professor. Plath
published her first poem at the age of 8. She was a sensitive person with a
little bit of perfectionist, straight A student, model of daughter and student.
Beneath all that, she made her first attempt at suicide by overdosing on
sleeping pills, which is almost took her life. When Plath arrived at Smith
College, she had written over 50 short stories and published it in a raft of
magazines. At Smith, she majored in English and won all the major prizes in
writing and scholarship. By the time she studied in Cambridge, she wrote for
the University publication, Varsity. On February 1963, Plath committed suicide with
cooking gas at the age of 30. The “Collected Poems”, edited and introduced by
her husband Ted Hughes was published in 1981, contained her poetry written from
1956 until her death. Plath was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for poetry.
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Dorothy Parker.
 Dorothy Rothschild or Dorothy Parker was born on August 22
1893 in Long Branch, New Jersey. She was the daughter of Jacob Henry and Eliza
Annie Rothschild. In 1916, Parker sold some of her poetry to the editor of
Vogue and later was given and editorial position on the magazine. From 1917 to
1920, she worked for Vanity Fair. Parker then formed the nucleus of the
Algonquin Round Table with two other writers, Robert Benchley and Robert
Sherwood. Her first collection of poems, Enough Rope was published in 1926. The
collection became a bestseller and was followed by “Sunset Guns”, “Death and
Taxes” which were featured in “Collected Poems: Not So Deep As a Well”. During
the 1920s, she attempted suicide 3 times due to extra-marital affairs but
Parker maintained the high quality of her texts. Parker died alone on June 7,
1967 in the New York hotel. She was nominated a few time for Academy Award for
her screenwriting.
Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy_Parker
http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/dorothy_parker/biography
Naomi Shihab Nye.
Naomi Shihab Nye was born on March 12, 1952 on St. Louis,
Missouri. Nye was born to a Palestinian father, Aziz Shihab and an American
mother. Nye graduated from Trinity University
in San Antonio, Texas. At the age of 6, Nye has began writing poems and she was
influenced by her mother who read to her all the time. Some of her earlier
works were also published in the Magazine Seventeen, Modern Poetry Studies and
Ironwood.
Her very first collection of poems, “Different Ways to
Pray”, explored the differences and similarities between cultures. Her major
themes in her work are mainly based on roots and sense of place. Nye’s other books
include 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East and a collection of
essays entitled Never in a Hurry and a novel called Habibi. Other than that,
Nye has also edited countless anthologies poems, both for the young and old
audience. One of her best-known anthologies is “This Same Sky: A Collection of
Poems from around the World” that consists of translated work by 129 poets from
68 countries.
Nye’s poems are frank and understandable and she manages to
use ordinary image in her startling ways. Nye has won a number of awards and
fellowships, such as 4 Pushcart Prizes, the Jane Addams Children’s Book award
and many other notable book citations.
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