Edited by Elizabeth Alexander (!) From the publisher: "Discover the most enduring works of legendary poet Gwendolyn Brooks—the first black author to win a Pulitzer Prize—in one collectible volume. 'If you wanted a poem,' wrote Gwendolyn Brooks, 'you only had to look out of a window. There was material always, walking or running, fighting or screaming or singing.' From the life of Chicago's South Side she made a forceful and passionate poetry that fused Modernist aesthetics with African-American cultural tradition, a poetry that registered the life of the streets and the upheavals of the 20th century. The Essential Gwendolyn Brooks traces the full arc of her career in all its ambitious scope and unexpected stylistic shifts."

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, poet laureate of Illinois, and the first Black woman to serve as a poetry consultant to the Library of Congress, Gwendolyn Brooks is one of the most celebrated poets of the 20th century. This is a compelling selection of standout poems from her first three collections, as well as some new poems. She offers insightful and illuminating portraits of Black Americans with her spare style and energetic warmth.