- Gloria Naylor
Gloria Naylor (born
January 25 ,1950 inNew York City ) is anAfrican American novelist. Her novel "The Women of Brewster Place" was adapted into a 1989 film of the same name byOprah Winfrey 'sHarpo Productions .Early life
She was the first child to Roosevelt Naylor and Alberta McAlpin. As Naylor grew up, her father was a transit worker and her mother was a telephone operator. When Naylor was young, her mother encouraged her to read and keep a journal. Even though her mother barely had any education, she loved to read and often worked overtime in the fields as a sharecropper to produce enough money to join a book club. In 1963 she moved to
Queens with her family. Five years later Naylor followed in her mother's footsteps and became a Jehovah's Witness, but she left seven years later as ”things weren't getting better, but worse.” [http://voices.cla.umn.edu/vg/Bios/entries/naylor_gloria.html Voices from the Gaps biography: Naylor, Gloria] ]chool life
Naylor worked as a switchboard operator for a few years while taking classes at
Medgar Evers College then transferring to attendBrooklyn College , Naylor received her bachelor’s degree in English. Once completing that, she attendedYale University in order to obtain her master’s degree in Afro–American studies. During her career as a professor, she taught writing and literature at several universities. She has taught atThe George Washington University ,New York University ,Boston University , andCornell University .Career
"The Women of Brewster Place" was her first novel, which she wrote during her studies at Yale. This book was finished in 1983 and was widely known right after being published. She won the
National Book Award for First Fiction in 1983 for her novel. Five years later, the book was turned into a movie in which Oprah Winfrey starred. Other novels which she has written often contain personal life stories and illustrate ideas from the Bible. She believes she has been subject tomind control and wrote about her experiences in the novel "1996". [Weinberger, S: " [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/10/AR2007011001399_pf.html Mind Games] The Washington Post, January 14, 2007, W22]Bibliography
*"The Women of Brewster Place" (1982), ISBN 0-670-77855-9
*"Linden Hills" (1985), ISBN 0-89919-357-9
*"Mama Day" (1988), ISBN 0-89919-716-7
*"Bailey's Café" (1992), ISBN 0-15-110450-6
*"Children of the Night: The Best Short Stories by Black Writers, 1967 to the Present" (1995), ISBN 0-316-59926-3 (editor)
*"The Men of Brewster Place" (1998), ISBN 0-7868-6421-4
*"1996" (2005), ISBN 0-88378-263-4Notes
External links
* [http://authors.aalbc.com/gloria.htm Biography]
* [http://www.aaregistry.com/african_american_history/2615/A_great_Gloria%20%20%20%20%20contemporary_writer_Gloria_Naylor]
* [http://www.watchtowerinformationservice.org/gloria.htm]
* [http://www.randomhouse.com/vintage/catalog/results_author.pperl?authorid=21891]
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