Margaret Walker (writer)
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Margaret Abigail Walker (born July 7, 1915 in Birmingham , Alabama , † November 30, 1998 in Chicago , Illinois ) was an American writer , poet and university lecturer , best known for her novel Jubilee and thus a leading exponent of the African American Literature in the middle of the 20th century .
Life
The daughter of a Methodist preacher , after attending the Gilbert Academy in New Orleans, first studied two years at Dillard University there and then English at Northwestern University , graduating in 1935 with a Bachelor of Arts (BA English). A subsequent postgraduate course at the University of Iowa she finished in 1940 with a Master of Arts (MA).
She made her literary debut in 1942 with the anthology For My People and was then professor of literature at Jackson State College in Jackson (Mississippi) from 1949 to 1979 .
In 1965 she was awarded a Philosophiae Doctor (Ph.D.) for her novel Jubilee by the University of Iowa, where she attended creative writing courses . This was published in 1966 and is her best known work. It is considered the first example of the so-called neo-slave narratives ; in it is the Civil War from the perspective of the slave Vyry is shown.
After the publication of the volume of poetry Prophets for a New Day (1970), she received a grant from the Fulbright Program in 1971 and a further grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) in 1972 . After the book How I Wrote Jubilee (1972), October Journey (1973) was followed by another anthology, before a biography of the Afro-American writer Richard Wright was published in 1988 under the title Richard Wright: Daemonic Genius .
In 1989, This Is My Century: New and Collected Poems, a collection of her poems and most recently a collection of essays under the title On Being Female, Black, and Free: Essays by Margaret Walker, 1932-1992 (1997).
Margaret Walker was included in the Daughters of Africa anthology published by Margaret Busby in London and New York in 1992 .
Publications
- Jubilee. Houghton Mifflin, 1966
- Flee like a bird to your mountains. Novel. Diana-Verlag, Konstanz 1968; Rowohlt, Reinbek 1972, ISBN 3-499-11532-8 ; Lübbe, Bergisch Gladbach 1990, ISBN 3-404-11587-2 ; Heyne, Munich 1994, ISBN 3-453-07507-2
literature
- Jacqueline Miller Carmichael: Trumpeting a Fiery Sound: History and Folklore in Margaret Walker's Jubilee. University of Georgia Press, Athens 1998
- Nancy Berke: Women Poets on the Left: Lola Ridge, Genevieve Taggard, Margaret Walker. University Press of Florida, 2001
- Maryemma Graham (Ed.): Fields Watered with Blood: Critical Essays on Margaret Walker. University of Georgia Press, 2001
- Maryemma Graham (Ed.): Conversations With Margaret Walker. University Press of Mississippi, 2002
- Carolyn J. Brown: Song of my life: a biography of Margaret Walker , Jackson, Miss. : Univ. Press of Mississippi, 2014, ISBN 978-1-62846-147-3
Web links
- Literature by and about Margaret Walker in the catalog of the German National Library
- Margaret Walker in the nndb (English)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Walker, Margaret |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Walker, Margaret Abigail (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American writer, poet and university professor |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 7, 1915 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Birmingham , Alabama |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 30, 1998 |
| Place of death | Chicago , Illinois |