Margaret Walker , poet, novelist, teacher, and essayist, published poetry in the 1930s in the prestigious magazine Poetry, Opportunity, and in Crisis. Having published her first volume of poems in 1942, her second one in 1970, and a prize-winning novel in 1966--and having continued writing into the 1980s--her career spans five decades. Throughout this time, the themes, images, and subjects of her work have remained consistently pertinent to a changing society. Her work is suffused by a complete historical perspective and humanism.

Much of Walker's responsiveness to the black experience, communicated through the realism of her work, can be attributed to her growing up in a southern home environment which emphasized the rich heritage of black culture. Margaret Abigail Walker was born 7 July 1915 in Birmingham, Alabama, to the Reverend Sigismund C. Walker and Marion Dozier Walker. The family moved to New Orleans when Walker was a young child. A Methodist minister...