Nationally award-winning author Alicia Singleton found her own reflection in the book that changed her life.
What is the book that changed your life?
A Street in Bronzeville by Gwendolyn Brooks
Tell me about the book.
Gwendolyn Brooks’s first published collection of poetry, A Street in Bronzeville, shows the genesis of her dedication to making poetry available to black people in any social and economic circumstance, and to illustrate a portrait of and for African Americans. Beautiful, lyrical sometimes heart-wrenching poems providing insight into 1940’s black American experience.
Why did it impact you?
Decades ago, when I was in middle school and dinosaurs still roamed the earth, my homeroom teacher tasked my class with writing book reports based on the works of a poet. At the time my favorite poet was Edgar Allen Poe, but many classmates had already picked several works of this literary genius. The other poetic selections Ms. Schultz suggested didn’t float my seventh grade boat. Out of options, that night I scoured the index of my encyclopedia for poets and stumbled across the name, Gwendolyn Brooks. The name didn’t ring a bell, I’d never heard of her, never learned about her in any history or English class. Thumbing through the reference pages, I found the entry dedicated to the Pulitzer Prize winner. I was dumbfounded. She looked like me!
Intrigued, I searched her titles and the book, A Street in Bronzeville, caught my eye. On my family’s weekly trip to the library, I requested the book then sat to read it. Page after page the brilliant, gritty writing drew me in. The raw, inner-city setting and the life-rich characters transported me back to my West Philly roots. The characters’ struggles, their joys, their tragedies spoke to me because I’d known each one of them. They’d been my neighbors, the parents of friends, my family.
Whelp, Gwendolyn Brooks edged in her position as favorite poet along with Edgar.
From the fourth grade until the day I picked up Ms. Brooks’ masterpiece, I loved being transported to other worlds through pages of a book. Reading, A Street in Bronzeville, ignited then stoked my passion to write those books.
Is there anything you would like to add? Alicia is hard at work on her next thriller, Returned to Bondage. Visit her at www.aliciasingleton.com.
