Gwendolyn Brooks (June 7, 1917 – December 3, 2000) was an award-winning African American woman poet. She was born in Topeka, Kansas, but when she was six weeks old, her family moved to Chicago where she grew up. Although she also wrote a novel, an autobiography and some other prose works, she was noted primarily as a poet. Her 1949 book of poetry, Annie Allen, received a Pulitzer Prize in 1950, the first won by an African American. In 1968, she was made Poet Laureate of Illinois. Other awards she received included the Frost Medal, the Shelley Memorial Award, and an award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Brooks was awarded more than 75 honorary degrees from colleges and universities worldwide.

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gwendolyn_Brooks