Born February 9, 1944, in Eatonton, Georgia. She was the eighth child born to Black sharecroppers. As a child, she was accidentally blinded in one eye after her brother fired a bb gun at her. After this incident, she began to resent her father which lasted the rest of his life, and she became less extraverted and self-conscious. Writing poetry and stories became her safe place. She received a scholarship to attend Spelman College, where she studied for two years before transferring to a different college.

She experienced difficulties with her mental health after becoming pregnant in 1964, and decided to throw herself into her writing after carrying the pregnancy to full term. After graduating in 1965, Walker moved to Mississippi, and became heavily involved in the civil rights movement. She was then married, became a mother, and divorced in the span of eight years.

Her critically acclaimed novel, The Color Purple (1982), won her the historical title of First Black Woman to receive a Pulitzer Price for Fiction. Walker’s introduction of the concept of “womanism” (1983) was an influential corrective to focus on white woman gaze in Feminism. “Womanism is to feminism as purple is to lilac.” (Walker, 1983).

Walker’s Core Themes:

• Gender

• Racial Inequality

• Sexuality

• Spirituality