Brain Snacks: Tasty Tidbits of Knowledge
Brooks was born in Kansas but raised in Chicago. Her father was a janitor; her mother, a schoolteacher. (Source)
Brooks said of the popularity of "We Real Cool": "Most young people know me only by that poem. I don't mean that I dislike it, but I would prefer it if the textbook compilers and the anthologists would assume I had written a few other poems." (Source)
In 1968, Brooks succeeded Carl Sandburg, who coined the phrase "City of Big Shoulders" to describe Chicago, as poet laureate of Illinois. (Source)
Brooks won the Pulitzer Prize in 1950 for her experimental long poem Annie Allen. She was the first African-American woman to win the award. (Source)
Brooks was awarded more than 70 honorary doctorate degrees. (The walls of her office must have been completely covered.) (Source)