Alice Malsenior Tallulah-Kate Walker (born February 9, 1944) is an American novelist, short story writer, poet, and social activist. In 1982, she became the first African-American woman to win the
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, which she was awarded for her novel ''
The Color Purple
''The Color Purple'' is a 1982 epistolary novel by American author Alice Walker which won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for Fiction. ''.
["National Book Awards – 1983"]
National Book Foundation. Retrieved March 15, 2012. (With essays by Anna Clark and Tarayi Jones from the Awards 60-year anniversary blog.) Over the span of her career, Walker has published seventeen novels and short story collections, twelve non-fiction works, and collections of essays and poetry. She has faced criticism for alleged antisemitism and for her endorsement of the conspiracist
David Icke
David Vaughan Icke (; born 29 April 1952) is an English conspiracy theorist and a former footballer and sports broadcaster. He has written over 20 books, self-published since the mid-1990s, and spoken in more than 25 countries.
In 1990, Icke ...
.
Early life
Alice Malsenior Walker was born in
Eatonton, Georgia
Eatonton is a city in and county seat of Putnam County, Georgia, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 6,307. It was named after William Eaton, an officer and diplomat involved in the First Barbary War. The name co ...
, a rural farming town, to Willie Lee Walker and Minnie Tallulah Grant.
Both of Walker's parents were
sharecroppers
Sharecropping is a legal arrangement with regard to agricultural land in which a landowner allows a tenant to use the land in return for a share of the crops produced on that land.
Sharecropping has a long history and there are a wide range ...
, though her mother also worked as a
seamstress
A dressmaker, also known as a seamstress, is a person who makes custom clothing for women, such as dresses, blouses, and evening gowns. Dressmakers were historically known as mantua-makers, and are also known as a modiste or fabrician.
Not ...
to earn extra money. Walker, the youngest of eight children, was first enrolled in school when she was just four years old at East Putnam Consolidated.
As an eight-year-old, Walker sustained an injury to her right eye after one of her brothers fired a
BB gun
A BB gun is a type of air gun designed to shoot metallic spherical projectiles called BBs (not to be confused with similar-looking bearing balls), which are approximately the same size as BB-size lead birdshot used on shotguns ( in diamete ...
.
Since her family did not have access to a car, Walker could not receive immediate medical attention, causing her to become permanently
blind in that eye. It was after the injury to her eye that Walker began to take up reading and writing.
The scar tissue was removed when Walker was 14, but a mark still remains. It is described in her essay "Beauty: When the Other Dancer is the Self".
[''World Authors 1995–2000'', 2003. Biography Reference Bank database. Retrieved April 10, 2009.]
As the schools in Eatonton were segregated, Walker attended the only high school available to black students: Butler Baker High School.
There, she went on to become
valedictorian
Valedictorian is an academic title for the highest-performing student of a graduating class of an academic institution.
The valedictorian is commonly determined by a numerical formula, generally an academic institution's grade point average (GPA ...
, and enrolled in
Spelman College
Spelman College is a private, historically black, women's liberal arts college in Atlanta, Georgia. It is part of the Atlanta University Center academic consortium in Atlanta. Founded in 1881 as the Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary, Spelman rece ...
in 1961 after being granted a full scholarship by the state of
Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
for having the highest academic achievements of her class.
She found two of her professors,
Howard Zinn
Howard Zinn (August 24, 1922January 27, 2010) was an American historian, playwright, philosopher, socialist thinker and World War II veteran. He was chair of the history and social sciences department at Spelman College, and a politica ...
and
Staughton Lynd, to be great mentors during her time at Spelman, but both were transferred two years later.
Walker was offered another scholarship, this time from
Sarah Lawrence College in
Yonkers, New York
Yonkers () is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States. Developed along the Hudson River, it is the third most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City and Buffalo. The population of Yonkers was 211,569 as en ...
, and after the firing of her Spelman professor, Howard Zinn, Walker accepted the offer.
Walker became pregnant at the start of her senior year and had an abortion; this experience, as well as the bout of
suicidal
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and subs ...
thoughts that followed, inspired much of the poetry found in ''Once'', Walker's first collection of poetry.
Walker graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1965.
Writing career
Walker wrote the poems that would culminate in her first book of poetry, entitled ''Once'', while she was a student in
East Africa and during her senior year at Sarah Lawrence College. Walker would slip her poetry under the office door of her professor and mentor,
Muriel Rukeyser
Muriel Rukeyser (December 15, 1913 – February 12, 1980) was an American poet and political activist, best known for her poems about equality, feminism, social justice, and Judaism. Kenneth Rexroth said that she was the greatest poet of her "e ...
, when she was a student at Sarah Lawrence. Rukeyser then showed the poems to her
literary agent. ''Once'' was published four years later by
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich
Harcourt () was an American publishing firm with a long history of publishing fiction and nonfiction for adults and children. The company was last based in San Diego, California, with editorial/sales/marketing/rights offices in New York City a ...
.
Following graduation, Walker briefly worked for the New York City
Department of Welfare, before returning to the South. She took a job working for the Legal Defense Fund of the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. ...
in
Jackson, Mississippi
Jackson, officially the City of Jackson, is the capital of and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Mississippi. The city is also one of two county seats of Hinds County, along with Raymond. The city had a population of 153,701 at t ...
.
Walker also worked as a consultant in black history to the Friends of the Children of Mississippi Head Start program. She later returned to writing as
writer-in-residence
Artist-in-residence, or artist residencies, encompass a wide spectrum of artistic programs which involve a collaboration between artists and hosting organisations, institutions, or communities. They are programs which provide artists with space a ...
at
Jackson State University
Jackson State University (Jackson State or JSU) is a public historically black research university in Jackson, Mississippi. It is one of the largest HBCUs in the United States and the fourth largest university in Mississippi in terms of studen ...
(1968–69) and
Tougaloo College
Tougaloo College is a private historically black college in the Tougaloo area of Jackson, Mississippi. It is affiliated with the United Church of Christ and Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). It was originally established in 1869 by New Yor ...
(1970–71). In addition to her work at Tougaloo College, Walker published her first novel, ''
The Third Life of Grange Copeland,'' in 1970. The novel explores the life of Grange Copeland, an abusive, irresponsible sharecropper, husband and father.
In the fall of 1972, Walker taught a course in Black Women's Writers at the
University of Massachusetts Boston
The University of Massachusetts Boston (stylized as UMass Boston) is a public research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the only public research university in Boston and the third-largest campus in the five-campus University of Massa ...
.
In 1973, before becoming editor of ''
Ms.
Ms. (American English) or Ms (British English; normally , but also , or when unstressed)''Oxford English Dictionary'' online, Ms, ''n.2''. Etymology: "An orthographic and phonetic blend of Mrs ''n.1'' and miss ''n.2'' Compare mizz ''n.'' The pr ...
''
''Magazine'', Walker and literary scholar Charlotte D. Hunt discovered an unmarked grave they believed to be that of
Zora Neale Hurston in
Ft. Pierce, Florida. Walker had it marked with a gray marker stating ZORA NEALE HURSTON / ''A GENIUS OF THE SOUTH'' / NOVELIST FOLKLORIST / ANTHROPOLOGIST / 1901–1960.
The line "a genius of the south" is from
Jean Toomer
Jean Toomer (born Nathan Pinchback Toomer; December 26, 1894 – March 30, 1967) was an American poet and novelist commonly associated with the Harlem Renaissance, though he actively resisted the association, and with modernism. His reputatio ...
's poem ''Georgia Dusk,'' which appears in his book ''
Cane
Cane or caning may refer to:
*Walking stick or walking cane, a device used primarily to aid walking
* Assistive cane, a walking stick used as a mobility aid for better balance
*White cane, a mobility or safety device used by many people who are ...
''.
Hurston was actually born in 1891, not 1901.
Walker's 1975 article
In Search of Zora Neale Hurston, published in ''Ms.'' Magazine and later retitled "Looking for Zora", helped revive interest in the work of this African-American writer and anthropologist.
In 1976, Walker's second novel, ''
Meridian
Meridian or a meridian line (from Latin ''meridies'' via Old French ''meridiane'', meaning “midday”) may refer to
Science
* Meridian (astronomy), imaginary circle in a plane perpendicular to the planes of the celestial equator and horizon
* ...
,'' was published. ''Meridian'' is a novel about activist workers in the South, during the
civil rights movement
The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement throughout the Unite ...
, with events that closely parallel some of Walker's own experiences. In 1982, she published what has become her best-known work, ''
The Color Purple
''The Color Purple'' is a 1982 epistolary novel by American author Alice Walker which won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for Fiction. ''. The novel follows a young, troubled black woman fighting her way through not just
racist white culture but
patriarchal black culture as well. The book became a bestseller and was subsequently adapted into a critically acclaimed 1985 movie directed by
Steven Spielberg, featuring
Oprah Winfrey and
Whoopi Goldberg
Caryn Elaine Johnson (born November 13, 1955), known professionally as Whoopi Goldberg (), is an American actor, comedian, author, and television personality.Kuchwara, Michael (AP Drama Writer)"Whoopi Goldberg: A One-Woman Character Parade". ' ...
, as well as a 2005
Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
**Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
musical totalling 910 performances.
Walker has written several other novels, including ''
The Temple of My Familiar'' (1989) and ''
Possessing the Secret of Joy
''Possessing the Secret of Joy'' is a 1992 novel by Alice Walker.
Plot summary
It tells the story of Tashi, an African woman and a minor character in Walker's earlier novel ''The Color Purple''. Now in the US she comes from Olinka, Alice Walker ...
'' (1992) (which featured several characters and descendants of characters from ''The Color Purple''). She has published a number of collections of short stories, poetry, and other writings. Her work is focused on the struggles of black people, particularly women, and their lives in a racist,
sexist, and violent society.
In 2000, Walker released a collection of short fiction, based on her own life, called ''The Way Forward Is With a Broken Heart,'' exploring love and race relations. In this book, Walker details her
interracial
Interracial topics include:
* Interracial marriage, marriage between two people of different races
** Interracial marriage in the United States
*** 2009 Louisiana interracial marriage incident
* Interracial adoption, placing a child of one raci ...
relationship with
Melvyn Rosenman Leventhal, a civil rights attorney who was also working in
Mississippi
Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...
. The couple married on March 17, 1967, in New York City, since interracial marriage was then illegal in the South, and divorced in 1976.
They had a daughter, Rebecca, together in 1969.
Rebecca Walker
Rebecca Walker (born November 17, 1969, as Rebecca Leventhal) is an American writer, feminist, and activist. Walker has been regarded as one of the prominent voices of Third Wave Feminism, and the coiner of the term "third wave", since publish ...
, Alice Walker's only child, is an American novelist, editor, artist, and activist. The
Third Wave Foundation
Third-wave feminism is an iteration of the feminist movement that began in the early 1990s, prominent in the decades prior to the fourth wave. Grounded in the civil-rights advances of the second wave, Gen X and early Gen Y generations third-wav ...
, an activist fund, was co-founded by Rebecca and
Shannon Liss-Riordan.
Her godmother is Alice Walker's mentor and co-founder of ''Ms. Magazine'',
Gloria Steinem
Gloria Marie Steinem (; born March 25, 1934) is an American journalist and social-political activist who emerged as a nationally recognized leader of second-wave feminism in the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Steinem was a c ...
.
In 2007, Walker donated her papers, consisting of 122 boxes of manuscripts and archive material, to
Emory University
Emory University is a private research university in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1836 as "Emory College" by the Methodist Episcopal Church and named in honor of Methodist bishop John Emory, Emory is the second-oldest private institution of ...
's Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library. In addition to drafts of novels such as ''The Color Purple'', unpublished poems and manuscripts, and correspondence with editors, the collection includes extensive correspondence with family members, friends and colleagues, early treatment of the film script for ''
The Color Purple
''The Color Purple'' is a 1982 epistolary novel by American author Alice Walker which won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for Fiction. '', syllabi from courses she taught, and fan mail. The collection also contains a scrapbook of poetry compiled when Walker was 15, entitled "Poems of a Childhood Poetess".
In 2013, Alice Walker published two new books, one of them entitled ''The Cushion in the Road: Meditation and Wandering as the Whole World Awakens to Being in Harm's Way''. The other was a book of poems entitled ''The World Will Follow Joy Turning Madness into Flowers (New Poems)''.
Activism
Civil rights
Walker met
Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...
when she was a student at
Spelman College
Spelman College is a private, historically black, women's liberal arts college in Atlanta, Georgia. It is part of the Atlanta University Center academic consortium in Atlanta. Founded in 1881 as the Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary, Spelman rece ...
in the early 1960s. She credits King for her decision to return to the
American South as an activist in the
Civil Rights Movement
The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement throughout the Unite ...
. She took part in the
1963 March on Washington
Events January
* January 1 – Bogle–Chandler case: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation scientist Dr. Gilbert Bogle and Mrs. Margaret Chandler are found dead (presumed poisoned), in bushland near the Lane Cove ...
with hundreds of thousands of people. Later, she volunteered to register black voters in Georgia and Mississippi.
On March 8, 2003,
International Women's Day, on the eve of the
Iraq War
{{Infobox military conflict
, conflict = Iraq War {{Nobold, {{lang, ar, حرب العراق (Arabic) {{Nobold, {{lang, ku, شەڕی عێراق ( Kurdish)
, partof = the Iraq conflict and the War on terror
, image ...
, Walker was arrested with 26 others, including fellow authors
Maxine Hong Kingston and
Terry Tempest Williams
Terry Tempest Williams (born 8 September 1955), is an American writer, educator, conservationist, and activist. Williams' writing is rooted in the American West and has been significantly influenced by the arid landscape of Utah. Her work foc ...
, at a protest outside the
White House
The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in ...
, for crossing a police line during an anti-war rally. Walker wrote about the experience in her essay "We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For".
Womanism
Walker's specific brand of
feminism
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...
included advocacy of women of color. In 1983, Walker coined the term ''
womanist'' in her collection ''
In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens
Published in 1983, ''In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens: Womanist Prose'' is a collection composed of 36 separate pieces written by Alice Walker. The essays, articles, reviews, statements, and speeches were written between 1966 and 1982. Many are ...
'', to mean "a black feminist or feminist of color". The term was made to unite women of color and the feminist movement at "the intersection of race, class, and gender oppression".
Walker states that, "'Womanism' gives us a word of our own". because it is a discourse of Black women and the issues they confront in society. Womanism as a movement came into fruition in 1985 at the
American Academy of Religion and the
Society of Biblical Literature to address Black women's concerns from their own intellectual, physical, and spiritual perspectives."
Israeli–Palestinian conflict
Walker is a judge member of the
Russell Tribunal on Palestine, and she supports the
Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions
Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) is a Palestinian-led movement promoting boycotts, divestments, and economic sanctions against Israel. Its objective is to pressure Israel to meet what the BDS movement describes as Israel's obligations ...
campaign against Israel.
In January 2009, Walker was one of over fifty signatories of a letter protesting against the
Toronto International Film Festival
The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a perman ...
's "City to City" spotlight on Israeli filmmakers, and condemning Israel as an "
apartheid
Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...
regime". Two months later, Walker and sixty other female activists from the anti-war group
Code Pink
Code Pink: Women for Peace (often stylized as CODEPINK) is a left-wing internationally active non-governmental organization that describes itself as a "grassroots peace and social justice movement working to end U.S.-funded wars and occupations, ...
traveled to
Gaza in response to the
Gaza War. Their purpose was to deliver aid, meet with NGOs and residents, and persuade Israel and Egypt to open their borders with Gaza. She planned to visit Gaza again in December 2009 to participate in the
Gaza Freedom March
Gaza Freedom March was a plan for a political march, intended to be non-violent, in 2009 to end the blockade of the Gaza Strip. The march planned to depart on 31 December from Izbet Abed Rabbo, an area devastated during Operation Cast Lead, and hea ...
. On June 23, 2011, she announced plans to participate in an aid
flotilla
A flotilla (from Spanish, meaning a small ''flota'' ( fleet) of ships), or naval flotilla, is a formation of small warships that may be part of a larger fleet.
Composition
A flotilla is usually composed of a homogeneous group of the same clas ...
to Gaza that attempted to break Israel's naval blockade.
In May 2013, Walker posted an open letter to singer
Alicia Keys
Alicia Augello Cook (born January 25, 1981), known professionally as Alicia Keys, is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. A classically trained pianist, Keys started composing songs when she was 12 and was signed at 15 years old by Col ...
, asking her to cancel a planned concert in
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the ...
. "I believe we are mutually respectful of each other's path and work," Walker wrote. "It would grieve me to know you are putting yourself in danger (soul danger) by performing in an apartheid country that is being boycotted by many global conscious artists." Keys rejected the plea. Walker has refused to allow ''
The Color Purple
''The Color Purple'' is a 1982 epistolary novel by American author Alice Walker which won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for Fiction. '' to be translated and published in Hebrew,
saying that she finds that "Israel is guilty of apartheid and persecution of the Palestinian people, both inside Israel and also in the Occupied Territories" and noting that she had refused to allow
Steven Spielberg's film adaptation of her novel to be shown in South Africa until the system of
apartheid
Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...
was dismantled.
Support for Chelsea Manning and Julian Assange
In June 2013, Walker and others appeared in a video showing support for
Chelsea Manning
Chelsea Elizabeth Manning (born Bradley Edward Manning; December 17, 1987) is an American activist and whistleblower. She is a former United States Army soldier who was convicted by court-martial in July 2013 of violations of the Espionage A ...
, an American soldier imprisoned for releasing
classified information
Classified information is material that a government body deems to be sensitive information that must be protected. Access is restricted by law or regulation to particular groups of people with the necessary security clearance and need to kn ...
. In recent years she has spoken out repeatedly in support of
Julian Assange.
Pacifism
Walker has been a longtime sponsor of the
Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) is a non-profit non-governmental organization working "to bring together women of different political views and philosophical and religious backgrounds determined to study and make kno ...
. In early 2015, she wrote: "So I think of any movement for peace and justice as something that is about stabilizing our inner spirit so that we can go on and bring into the world a vision that is much more humane than the one we have dominant today."
Accusations of antisemitism and praise for David Icke
Since 2012, Walker has expressed appreciation for the works of the British conspiracy theorist
David Icke
David Vaughan Icke (; born 29 April 1952) is an English conspiracy theorist and a former footballer and sports broadcaster. He has written over 20 books, self-published since the mid-1990s, and spoken in more than 25 countries.
In 1990, Icke ...
.
On
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...
's ''
Desert Island Discs
''Desert Island Discs'' is a radio programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4. It was first broadcast on the BBC Forces Programme on 29 January 1942.
Each week a guest, called a "castaway" during the programme, is asked to choose eight recordings (usua ...
'', she said that Icke's book ''Human Race Get Off Your Knees: The Lion Sleeps No More'', which contains anti-semitic conspiracy theories, would be the book she would take to a desert island.
The book promotes the theory that the Earth is ruled by
shapeshifting reptilian humanoid
Reptilian humanoids, or anthropomorphic reptiles, are fictional creatures that appear in folklore, fiction, and conspiracy theories.
In folklore
In South Asian and Southeast Asian mythology, the Nāga are semi-divine creatures which are half ...
s and "Rothschild Zionists".
Jonathan Kay
Jonathan Hillel Kay (born 1968) is a Canadian journalist. He was the editor-in-chief of ''The Walrus'' (2014–2017), and is a senior editor of ''Quillette''. He was previously comment pages editor, columnist, and blogger for the Toronto-based Ca ...
of the ''
National Post
The ''National Post'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet newspaper available in several cities in central and western Canada. The paper is the flagship publication of Postmedia Network and is published Mondays through Saturdays, with ...
'' described this book (and Icke's other books) as "hateful, hallucinogenic nonsense". Kay wrote that Walker's public praise for Icke's book was "stunningly offensive" and that by taking it seriously, she was disqualifying herself "from the mainstream marketplace of ideas".
In 2013, the
Anti-Defamation League called anti-Zionist essays in Walker's book ''The Cushion in the Road'' "replete with fervently anti-Jewish ideas" and said Walker was "unabashedly infected with anti-Semitism".
In 2017, Walker published a poem on her blog entitled "It Is Our (Frightful) Duty to Study The
Talmud
The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law ('' halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the ce ...
", recommending that the reader should start with YouTube to learn about the allegedly shocking aspects of the Talmud, describing it as "poison". The poem used antisemitic tropes and arguments. In it, she also "describes her reaction when a Jewish friend", later stated to be
her ex-husband, accused her "of appearing to be antisemitic".
In 2018, Walker was asked by an interviewer from ''
The New York Times Book Review
''The New York Times Book Review'' (''NYTBR'') is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times'' in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely rea ...
'' "What books are on your nightstand?" She listed Icke's ''And the Truth Shall Set You Free,'' a book promoting an
antisemitic conspiracy theory which draws on ''
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion
''The Protocols of the Elders of Zion'' () or ''The Protocols of the Meetings of the Learned Elders of Zion'' is a fabricated antisemitic text purporting to describe a Jewish plan for global domination. The hoax was plagiarized from several ...
'' and
questions the Holocaust. Walker said: "In Icke's books there is the whole of existence, on this planet and several others, to think about. A curious person's dream come true."
The publication of the interview in the "By the Book" weekly column generated significant criticism of Walker and the ''New York Times Book Review''. The ''Review'' was criticized both for publishing the interview at all and for failing to contextualize ''And the Truth Shall Set You Free'' as an antisemitic work. Walker defended her admiration for Icke and his book, saying, "I do not believe he is anti-Semitic or anti-Jewish".
Walker argued that any "attempt to smear David Icke, and by association, me, is really an effort to dampen the effect of our speaking out in support of the people of Palestine". Following the controversy
Roxane Gay
Roxane Gay (born October 15, 1974) is an American writer, professor, editor, and social commentator. Gay is the author of ''The New York Times'' best-selling essay collection '' Bad Feminist'' (2014), as well as the short story collection ''Ayit ...
argued that "Alice Walker has been anti-Semitic for years". The NYT released a statement that the contents of the interview "do not imply an endorsement by Times editors".
In 2019
Ayanna Pressley
Ayanna Soyini Pressley (born February 3, 1974) is an American politician who has served as the U.S. representative for Massachusetts's 7th congressional district since 2019. This district includes the northern three quarters of Boston, most of C ...
disavowed antisemitism after an uproar ensued following her tweeting an Alice Walker quote. She tweeted "I fully condemn and denounce anti-Semitism, prejudice and bigotry in all their forms – and the hateful actions they embolden" and said she had been unaware of Walker's statements on the issue.
In 2020, after learning of Walker's support of anti-Semitism, the host of the ''New York Times'' podcast ''Sugar Calling'' described herself as "mortified" for having hosted Walker on her show and said, "If I'd known, I wouldn't have asked Alice Walker to be on the show".
In April 2022,
Gayle King
Gayle King (born December 28, 1954) is an American television personality, author and broadcast journalist for CBS News, co-hosting its flagship morning program, '' CBS Mornings'', and before that its predecessor ''CBS This Morning''. She is ...
of CBS News was criticized for interviewing Walker without challenging her anti-Semitic writings. After the interview, King released a statement, saying, "'These are not only legitimate questions, they are mandatory questions. I certainly would have asked her about the criticisms, if I had been aware of them before the interview with Ms. Walker."
In 2022 Walker was disinvited from the
Bay Area Book Festival due to what the organizers referred to as her "endorsement of anti-Semitic conspiracy theorist David Icke".
Personal life
In 1965, Walker met
Melvyn Rosenman Leventhal, a Jewish civil rights lawyer. They were married on March 17, 1967, in New York City. Later that year the couple relocated to
Jackson, Mississippi
Jackson, officially the City of Jackson, is the capital of and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Mississippi. The city is also one of two county seats of Hinds County, along with Raymond. The city had a population of 153,701 at t ...
, becoming the first legally-married
interracial
Interracial topics include:
* Interracial marriage, marriage between two people of different races
** Interracial marriage in the United States
*** 2009 Louisiana interracial marriage incident
* Interracial adoption, placing a child of one raci ...
couple in Mississippi since
miscegenation
Miscegenation ( ) is the interbreeding of people who are considered to be members of different races. The word, now usually considered pejorative, is derived from a combination of the Latin terms ''miscere'' ("to mix") and ''genus'' ("race") ...
laws were introduced in the state.
They were harassed and threatened by whites, including the
Ku Klux Klan.
The couple had a daughter,
Rebecca, in 1969. Walker and her husband divorced in 1976.
In the late 1970s, Walker moved to northern California. In 1984, she and fellow writer
Robert L. Allen co-founded Wild Tree Press, a feminist publishing company in
Anderson Valley
Anderson Valley is a sparsely populated region in western Mendocino County in Northern California. Located approximately north of San Francisco, the name "Anderson Valley" applies broadly to several rural, unincorporated communities in or near ...
, California. Walker legally added "Tallulah Kate" to her name in 1994 to honor her mother, Minnie Tallulah Grant, and paternal grandmother, Tallulah.
Minnie Tallulah Grant's grandmother, Tallulah, was
Cherokee
The Cherokee (; chr, ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯᎢ, translit=Aniyvwiyaʔi or Anigiduwagi, or chr, ᏣᎳᎩ, links=no, translit=Tsalagi) are one of the indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, t ...
.
Walker has claimed she was in a romantic relationship with singer-songwriter
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman (born March 30, 1964) is an American singer-songwriter. Chapman is best known for her hit singles "Fast Car" and "Give Me One Reason".
Chapman was signed to Elektra Records by Bob Krasnow in 1987. The following year she released ...
in the mid-1990s, saying, "It was delicious and lovely and wonderful and I totally enjoyed it and I was completely in love with her but it was not anybody's business but ours."
Chapman has not publicly commented on the existence of a relationship and maintains a strict separation between her private and public life.
Walker's
spirituality has influenced some of her most well-known novels, including ''
The Color Purple
''The Color Purple'' is a 1982 epistolary novel by American author Alice Walker which won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for Fiction. .'' She has written of her interest in
Transcendental Meditation
Transcendental Meditation (TM) is a form of silent mantra meditation advocated by the Transcendental Meditation movement. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi created the technique in India in the mid-1950s. Advocates of TM claim that the technique promotes ...
. Walker's exploration of religion in much of her writing draws on a literary tradition that includes writers like
Zora Neale Hurston.
Representation in other media
''
Beauty in Truth'' (2013) is a documentary film about Walker directed by
Pratibha Parmar
Pratibha Parmar is a British writer and filmmaker. She has made feminist documentaries such as '' Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth'' and '' My Name is Andrea'' about Andrea Dworkin.
Early life
Parmar was born in Nairobi, Kenya to Indian parents and ...
.
''Phalia (Portrait of Alice Walker)'' (1989) is a photograph by
Maud Sulter
Maud Sulter (19 September 1960 – 27 February 2008) was a Scottish contemporary fine artist, photographer, writer, educator, feminist, cultural historian, and curator of Ghanaian heritage. She began her career as a writer and poet, becoming a v ...
from her ''Zabat'' series originally produced for the
Rochdale Art Gallery in England.
Awards and honors
*
MacDowell Colony
MacDowell is an artist's residency program in Peterborough, New Hampshire, United States, founded in 1907 by composer Edward MacDowell and his wife, pianist and philanthropist Marian MacDowell. Prior to July 2020, it was known as the MacDowel ...
Fellowships (1967 and 1974)
*
Ingram Merrill Foundation The Ingram Merrill Foundation was a private foundation established in the mid-1950s by poet James Merrill (1926-1995), using funds from his substantial family inheritance.J. D. McClatchyBraving the Elements ''The New Yorker'', 27 March 1995. Retrie ...
Fellowship (1967)
*
Candace Award
The Candace Award is an award that was given from 1982 to 1992 by the National Coalition of 100 Black Women (NCBW) to "Black role models of uncommon distinction who have set a standard of excellence for young people of all races". Candace (pronou ...
, Arts and Letters,
National Coalition of 100 Black Women
The National Coalition of 100 Black Women, Inc. (NCBW) is a non-profit volunteer organization for African American women. Its members address common issues in their communities, families and personal lives, promoting gender and racial equity.
Hi ...
(1982)
*
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (1983) for ''
The Color Purple
''The Color Purple'' is a 1982 epistolary novel by American author Alice Walker which won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for Fiction. ''
["Fiction"](_blank)
''Past winners and finalists by category''. The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved March 17, 2012.
*
National Book Award for Fiction
The National Book Award for Fiction is one of five annual National Book Awards, which recognize outstanding literary work by United States citizens. Since 1987 the awards have been administered and presented by the National Book Foundation, but ...
(1983) for ''The Color Purple''
[From 1980 to 1983 there were dual hardcover and paperback awards of the ]National Book Award for Fiction
The National Book Award for Fiction is one of five annual National Book Awards, which recognize outstanding literary work by United States citizens. Since 1987 the awards have been administered and presented by the National Book Foundation, but ...
. Walker won the award for hardcover fiction.
* O. Henry Award
The O. Henry Award is an annual American award given to short stories of exceptional merit. The award is named after the American short-story writer O. Henry.
The ''PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories'' is an annual collection of the year's twenty best ...
for "Kindred Spirits" (1985)
* Honorary degree from the California Institute of the Arts
The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) is a private art university in Santa Clarita, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the US created specifically for students of both ...
(1995)
* American Humanist Association named her as "Humanist of the Year" (1997)
* Lillian Smith Award from the National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...
* Rosenthal Award from the National Institute of Arts & Letters
* Radcliffe Institute Fellowship, the Merrill Fellowship, and a Guggenheim Fellowship
* Front Page Award for Best Magazine Criticism from the Newswoman's Club of New York
* Induction into the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame
The Georgia Writers Hall of Fame honors writers who have made significant contributions to the literary legacy of the state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. Established in 2000 by the University of Georgia Libraries’ Hargrett Rare Book and Manu ...
(2001)
* Induction into the California Hall of Fame in The California Museum for History, Women, and the Arts
The California Museum is the state history museum of California, located in its capital city of Sacramento. It is dedicated to Californian history and the stories of California. The museum is home to the California Hall of Fame and has more t ...
(2006)
* Domestic Human Rights Award from Global Exchange
Global Exchange was founded in 1988 and is an advocacy group, human rights organization, and a 501(c)(3) organization, based in San Francisco, California, United States. The group defines its mission as, "to promote human rights and social, econo ...
(2007)
* The LennonOno Grant for Peace The LennonOno Grant for Peace is an award presented by artist and peace activist Yoko Ono. The grant, a sum of $50,000, has been awarded biennially to people and organisations chosen by Ono herself since 2002, in honour of Ono's late husband John L ...
(2010)
Selected works
Novels and short story collections
* '' The Third Life of Grange Copeland'' (1970)
* ''In Love and Trouble: Stories of Black Women'' (1973, includes " Everyday Use")
* ''Meridian
Meridian or a meridian line (from Latin ''meridies'' via Old French ''meridiane'', meaning “midday”) may refer to
Science
* Meridian (astronomy), imaginary circle in a plane perpendicular to the planes of the celestial equator and horizon
* ...
'' (1976)
* ''The Color Purple
''The Color Purple'' is a 1982 epistolary novel by American author Alice Walker which won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for Fiction. '' (1982)
* ''You Can't Keep a Good Woman Down: Stories'' (1982)
* ''To Hell With Dying'' (1988)
* '' The Temple of My Familiar'' (1989)
* ''Finding the Green Stone'' (1991)
* ''Possessing the Secret of Joy
''Possessing the Secret of Joy'' is a 1992 novel by Alice Walker.
Plot summary
It tells the story of Tashi, an African woman and a minor character in Walker's earlier novel ''The Color Purple''. Now in the US she comes from Olinka, Alice Walker ...
'' (1992)
* ''The Complete Stories'' (1994)
* ''By the Light of My Father's Smile'' (1998)
* ''The Way Forward Is with a Broken Heart'' (2000)
* ''Now Is the Time to Open Your Heart'' (2004)
Poetry collections
* ''Once'' (1968)
* ''Revolutionary Petunias and Other Poems'' (1973)
* ''Good Night, Willie Lee, I'll See You in the Morning'' (1979)
* ''Horses Make a Landscape Look More Beautiful'' (1985)
* ''Her Blue Body Everything We Know: Earthling Poems'' (1991)
* ''Absolute Trust in the Goodness of the Earth'' (2003)
* ''A Poem Traveled Down My Arm: Poems And Drawings'' (2003)
* ''Collected Poems'' (2005)
* ''The World Will Follow Joy'' (2013)
* ''Hard Times Require Furious Dancing: New Poems'' (2010)
* ''Taking the Arrow Out of the Heart'' (2018)
Non-fiction books
* '' In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens: Womanist Prose'' (1983)
* ''Living by the Word'' (1988)
* ''Warrior Marks
''Warrior Marks: Female Genital Mutilation and the Sexual Blinding of Women'' is a 1993 book by Alice Walker with Pratibha Parmar, who made an award-winning documentary of the same name. Following on from her 1992 novel '' Possessing the Secret of ...
'' (1993)
* ''The Same River Twice: Honoring the Difficult'' (1996)
* ''Anything We Love Can Be Saved: A Writer's Activism'' (1997)
* ''Sent By Earth: A Message from the Grandmother Spirit After the Bombing of the World Trade Center and Pentagon'' (2001)
* ''We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For'' (2006)
* ''Pema Chödrön and Alice Walker in Conversation
* ''Overcoming Speechlessness'' (2010)
* ''Chicken Chronicles, A Memoir'' (2011)
* ''The cushion in the road – Meditation and wandering as the whole world awakens to be in harm's way'' (2013)
Essays
* "Beauty: When the Other Dancer is the Self" (1983)
See also
* List of animal rights advocates
References
Notes
Citations
Further reading
*
*
External links
Alice Walker's official website
''Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth''
– full video of biography film at PBS.org
Profile
at the Poetry Foundation
The Poetry Foundation is an American literary society that seeks to promote poetry and lyricism in the wider culture. It was formed from ''Poetry'' magazine, which it continues to publish, with a 2003 gift of $200 million from philanthropist Ru ...
Profile
at Poets.org
The Academy of American Poets is a national, member-supported organization that promotes poets and the art of poetry. The nonprofit organization was incorporated in the state of New York in 1934. It fosters the readership of poetry through outreach ...
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*
*
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New Georgia Encyclopedia
Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library
Emory University
Alice Walker papers, circa 1930–2014 (MSS 1061)
Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library
Emory University
Letters to John Ferrone, 1976–1990 (MSS 1104)
Kalliope, Archives, Wilson Sharon, 1984, Alice Walker, 6(2), 37-42
{{DEFAULTSORT:Walker, Alice
1944 births
Living people
African-American novelists
American women novelists
American LGBT novelists
African-American poets
American women poets
American LGBT poets
African-American women writers
American feminist writers
Womanist writers
African-American feminists
LGBT feminists
Radical feminists
Activists against female genital mutilation
American humanists
American pacifists
African-American publishers (people)
American publishers (people)
Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) is a non-profit non-governmental organization working "to bring together women of different political views and philosophical and religious backgrounds determined to study and make kno ...
National Book Award winners
O. Henry Award winners
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winners
MacDowell Colony fellows
LGBT African Americans
Wellesley College faculty
Anti-Zionism in the United States
African American–Jewish relations
Sarah Lawrence College alumni
Spelman College alumni
LGBT people from Georgia (U.S. state)
LGBT people from Mississippi
Novelists from Georgia (U.S. state)
Writers from Jackson, Mississippi
20th-century African-American writers
20th-century American novelists
21st-century American novelists
20th-century American poets
21st-century American poets
20th-century American women writers
21st-century American women writers
Novelists from Massachusetts
Novelists from Mississippi
20th-century African-American women
Palestinian solidarity activists
21st-century African-American women