Description

Alice Walker is an internationally celebrated author, poet and activist whose books include seven novels, four collSan Miguel Writers’ Conferenceections of short stories, four children’s books, and volumes of essays and poetry.

She’s best known for The Color Purple, the 1983 novel for which she won the Pulitzer Prize—the first African American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction, though (in her opinion) not the first African American woman to deserve it —and the National Book Award. The award-winning novel was adapted for Steven Spielberg’s 1985 film.

Walker has written many additional best sellers; among them, Possessing the Secret of Joy (1992), which revealed the devastating effects of female genital mutilation and led to the 1993 book and documentary Warrior Marks, both collaborations with British-Indian filmmaker Pratibha Parmar, and We are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For: Inner Light in a Time of Darkness.(2009). Her work has been translated into more than two dozen languages, and her books have sold more than fifteen million copies.

Walker has been an activist all of her adult life, and believes that learning to extend the range of our compassion is activity and work available to all. She is one of the world’s most prolific writers, yet tirelessly continues to travel the world to literally stand on the side of the poor, and the economically, spiritually and politically oppressed.