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Alice Walker Biography, Books, and Similar Authors

Author Biography  | Interview  | Books by this Author  | Read-Alikes

Alice Walker
Photo: alicewalkersgarden.com

Alice Walker

Alice Walker Biography

Alice Walker is a renowned American author and activist. She won the Pulitzer Prize and the American Book Award for her novel The Color Purple. Her other bestselling novels include We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For, Possessing the Secret of Joy and The Temple of My Familiar. She is also the author of several collections of short stories, essays, poetry, and some children's books. Her books have been translated into more than two dozen languages. She began writing at the early age of eight, publishing her first story in 1965 at the age of 21. She travels extensively for her activism, standing up for economically, spiritually and politically oppressed people. She worked as a social worker and teacher, and was actively involved in the Civil Rights Movement. Born in Eatonton, Georgia in 1944, Walker now lives in Northern California.

Alice Walker's website

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Interview

Alice Walker discusses By the Light of My Father's Smile, being one of the most censored writers in the U.S., women’s sexuality, and much more.

(This conversation is reprinted from a interview originally printed in Ms. Magazine in September/October 1999.)

"You look like you're dressed for summer," says Alice Walker, skeptically, to a shorts-clad visitor who arrives at her majestic, 40-acre retreat in northern California. For Walker, who grew up in the blistering heat of rural Georgia, the mid-60s isn't anywhere close to her idea of warm. Indeed, bundled up in a black and gray striped shirt, crimson V-neck sweater, black pants and boots, Walker looks as if she's ready to curl up in front of a roaring fire. A friend from Hawaii, tanned and bright-eyed, is similarly attired except that her pants are a dazzling green; a green that mirrors the rolling, tree-blanketed vista that extends for miles outside the window of Walker's luxuriant kitchen--which is where she and I settle after her friend excuses herself.

Sipping cups of ginseng tea, we sit at a gleaming wooden table that is adorned with a vase of peach-colored lilies. The petals of the flowers are fully open, making them appear as if they're flirting with a tall, leafy banana tree in an adjacent corner. "I'm going to put it outside on the deck," says Walker, about the tree. "Maybe...

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  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
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Books by this Author

Books by Alice Walker at BookBrowse
We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For jacket By The Light of My Father's Smile jacket
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Read-Alikes

All the books below are recommended as read-alikes for Alice Walker but some maybe more relevant to you than others depending on which books by the author you have read and enjoyed. So look for the suggested read-alikes by title linked on the right.
How we choose read-alikes

We recommend 4 similar authors

View all 4 Read-Alikes

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