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Margaret Walker.
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Margaret Walker (born 1915), novelist, poet, scholar, and teacher, was best known for her Civil War novel Jubilee (1963) and for her powerful collection of poetry about racial affirmation, For My Peop...
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Margaret Walker , poet, novelist, teacher, and essayist, published poetry in the 1930s in the prestigious magazine Poetry, Opportunity, and in Crisis. Having published her first volume of poems in 194...
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Poet, novelist, essayist, orator, and literary critic, Margaret Abigail Walker Alexander has lived a full, long life, seeking personal and professional acquaintances with writers from virtually every ...
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In the following essay from his book on post-World War II African-America poets, Barksdale emphasizes Walker's attachment to African-American folk traditions in her use of language and subject ...
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In the following chapter from her book on three poets, Berke deconstructs the text of For My People, suggesting that the themes of black northward migration and the economic and social conditions of t...
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In the following interview, conducted in 1986 and published in 1987, Walker discusses her personal life and her working methods and compares herself with other Southern women writers.
[Freibert]: You ...
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In the following interview, originally conducted in 1996 and published in 1999, Walker discusses such subjects as influences on her writing, social protest poetry, the postmodernists, and her own huma...
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In the following essay, Berke calls attention to the often-neglected socially conscious poetry of three writers, including Walker's For My People.
Let anything that burns you come out whether i...
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In the following essay, Boyd examines the contributions of Walker and three black female writers to the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s, and places them in relationship to one another and t...
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In the following essay, delivered at New York University following Walker's death, Baraka emphasizes her unique contributions to American literature.
You cannot even spell here without her. Fir...
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In the following essay written after Walker's death, Graham offers an overview of her life and work, placing Walker in the context of her literary times.
Margaret Abigail Walker was born in Bir...
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In this excerpt from the Foreword to For My People, Benét introduces Walker as a promising new poet whose sincerity and talent make her work successful.
Straightforwardness, directness, reality...
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In this review of Walker's first volume of poems, Algren compliments her on her ability to communicate as a social poet but faults her for some stylistic weaknesses.
In this volume the Yale Ser...
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Below, Miller explores Walker's use of Biblical allusions in poems from For my People and Prophets for a New Day.
The reader [of For My People] experiences initially the tension and potential o...
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Collier discusses Walker's use of Black myth and ritual in the poems of For my People and Prophets for a New Day.
"For my people everywhere…," the reader began, and the aud...
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In the following excerpt, Barksdale examines Walker's use of folklore in the ballads of For My People and the civil rights poems of Prophets for a New Day.
Like Robert Hayden and Melvin Toison,...
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Walker summarizes her poetic career, acknowledging sources of literary inspiration and personal assistance from family members, friends and other writers throughout her life.
At Northwestern I first h...
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In the following excerpt, Buckner defines folklore and explores the manner in which Walker uses it in her ballads.
Since, quite often, there are misconceptions about the definition of folklore or �...
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In the following review of Walker's poetry, Howe discusses "Epitaph for My Father" from the "October Journey" section and "Fanfare, Coda, and Finale" f...
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Margaret Walker
Margaret (Abigail) Walker
Critical Essay by Richard K. Barksdale
