LibGuides: African American Women Writers: Margaret Walker

Margaret Walker (1915-1988) is best known for her only novel, Jubilee, which took her 30 years to write, and her poem “For My People,” which she composed, with the exception of the last stanza, in 15 minutes. Both works, and her efforts as a creative writer, scholar, and teacher since the 1930s, have been inseparable from her militant commitment to promoting the African-American struggle for equality and civil rights.*

Genre: Southern fiction

More about Margaret Walker at ProQuest One Literature

*Kort, C. (2016). Walker, Margaret. In C. Kort, A to Z of women: American women writers (3rd ed.). Facts On File. Credo Reference.

By Margaret Walker

Jubilee by Margaret Walker
A novel based on the life of the author's great-grandmother follows the story of Vyry, the child of a white plantation owner and one of his slaves, through the years of the Civil War and Reconstruction
On Being Female, Black and Free by Margaret Walker
This Is My Century: new and collected poems by Margaret Walker
This Is My Century is Walker's own defining summation of her career. Selected by the author herself, the one hundred poems include thirty-seven previously uncollected pieces and the entire contents of three hard-to-find volumes: the award-winning For My People (1942), Prophets for a New Day (1970), and October Journey (1975).

About Margaret Walker

Fields Watered with Blood : Critical Essays on Margaret Walker by Maryemma Graham(Editor)
As they discuss Walker's work, including the landmark poetry collection For My People and the novel Jubilee, the contributors reveal the complex interplay of concerns and themes in Walker's writing: folklore and prophecy, place and space, history and politics, gender and race. In addition, the contributors remark on how Walker's emphases on spirituality and on dignity in her daily life make themselves felt in her writings and show how Walker's accomplishments as a scholar, teacher, activist, mother, and family elder influenced what and how she wrote.
Song of My Life: a biography of Margaret Walker by Carolyn J. Brown
Song of My Life reintroduces Margaret Walker to readers by telling her story, one that many can relate to as she overcame certain obstacles related to race, gender, and poverty. Walker was born in 1915 in Birmingham, Alabama, to two parents who prized education above all else. Obtaining that education was not easy for either her parents or herself, but Walker went on to earn both her master's and doctorate. from the University of Iowa. Walker's journey to become a nationally known writer and educator is an incredible story of hard work and perseverance. Her years as a public figure connected her to Richard Wright, Langston Hughes, Alex Haley, and a host of other important literary and historical figures.
This Is Her Century: a study of Margaret Walker's work by Doaa Abdelhafez Hamada
Study of the works of Margaret Walker in chronological order, in the social and intellectual context of twentieth century America. Walker is a writer who is known by name for her works; however, very little criticism is written on her literary contributions. This is the first monograph on Walker's work by a single author and is an attempt to establish the importance of Walker's representation of twentieth-century America against its critical obscurity.