Alice Walker, winner of both the Pulitzer Prize and the American Book Award for The Color Purple, has dedicated her life to establishing a literary cannon of African American writers and to encouraging the “survival whole” of all women. She has won recognition for literary “foremothers” such as Zora Neale Hurston and Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, and has placed their contributions within the fabric of her own artistry. She has drawn on a childhood trauma in order to identify with African women who have been genitally mutilated, a theme that dominates her novel Possessing the Secret of Joy, and her non-fiction book Warrior Marks. Her recent autobiographical writing includes the pervasive themes of the history and preservation of African American culture, the importance of a community of women, reflections on her earlier life and responses...
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Citation: Johnson, Yvonne. "Alice Walker". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 29 February 2004; last revised 10 July 2025. [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4945, accessed 07 December 2025.]
