Alice Walker

Walker, Alice (1944– ), U.S. author of poetry and novels examining the life experiences of African Americans. Walker was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for The Color Purple (1982), the story of Celie, a poor girl growing up in the rural South. Other works include Once (1968) and Revolutionary Petunias and Other Poems (1973), both volumes of poetry; a biography, Langston Hughes, American Poet (1974); the novel The Third Life of Grange Copeland (1970), Meridian (1976), and Possessing the Secret of Joy (1992).