American author and poet, most of whose writing portrays the lives of poor, oppressed African American women in the early 1900s, Alice Walker was born in Eatonton, Georgia. She was the high school valedictorian and attended Spelman and Sarah Lawrence colleges.

She wrote most of her first volume of poetry during a single week in 1964; it was published in 1968 as Once. Walker's experiences during her senior year at Sarah Lawrence, including undergoing an abortion and making a trip to Africa, provided many of the book's themes, such as love, suicide, civil rights, and Africa. She volunteered in the voter registration drives of the 1960s in Georgia and went to work after college in the Welfare Department in New York City.

Topics