Gloria Naylor

Gloria Naylor (January 25, 1950 – September 28, 2016) was an American novelist, known for her book The Women of Brewster Place.

Early life and education

Naylor was born in New York on January 25, 1950, the oldest child of Roosevelt Naylor and Alberta McAlpin. The Naylors, who had been sharecroppers in Robinsonville, Mississippi, had migrated to Harlem to escape life in the segregated South. Her father became a transit worker; her mother, a telephone operator. Even though Naylor’s mother had little education, she loved to read, and encouraged her daughter to read and keep a journal.

In 1963, Naylor's family moved to Queens and her mother joined the Jehovah's Witnesses. An outstanding student who read voraciously, Naylor was placed into advanced classes in high school, where she immersed herself in the work of nineteenth century British novelists. Her educational aspirations, however, were delayed by the shock of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in her senior year. She decided to postpone her college education, becoming a missionary for the Jehovah’s Witnesses in New York, North Carolina, and Florida instead. She left seven years later as "things weren't getting better, but worse.”

Naylor earned her bachelor's degree in English at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York in 1981. She obtained a master's degree in African American Studies from Yale University in 1983. She was an honorary member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority.

Career

Naylor's debut novel, The Women of Brewster Place, was published in 1982 and won the 1983 National Book Award in the category First Novel. It was adapted as a 1989 film of the same name by Oprah Winfrey's Harpo Productions.

Naylor's work is featured in such anthologies as Breaking Ice: An Anthology of Contemporary African-American Fiction (ed. Terry McMillan, 1990), Calling the Wind: Twentieth-Century African-American Short Stories (ed. Clarence Major, 1992) and Daughters of Africa (ed. Margaret Busby, 1992).

During her career as a professor, Naylor taught writing and literature at several universities, including George Washington University, New York University, Boston University, and Cornell University.

Naylor died of a heart attack on September 28, 2016, while visiting St. Croix, United States Virgin Islands. She was 66.

Influence

During her studies at Brooklyn College, Naylor became immersed in the works of African-American female authors such as Zora Neale Hurston, Alice Walker, and especially Toni Morrison. Drawing inspiration from these authors, Naylor began writing stories centered on the lives of African-American women, which resulted in her first novel, The Women of Brewster Place.

Works

• The Women of Brewster Place (1982), ISBN 0-7868-6421-4
• Linden Hills (1985), ISBN 0-14-008829-6
• The Meanings of a Word (1986)
• Mama Day (1988), ISBN 0-89919-716-7
• Bailey's Cafe (1992), ISBN 0-15-110450-6
• Children of the Night: The Best Short Stories by Black Writers, 1967 to the Present (1995), ISBN 0-316-59926-3 (editor)
• The Men of Brewster Place (1999), ISBN 0-7868-8405-3
• 1996 (2005), ISBN 0-88378-263-4

Awards

• National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, 1985
• Candace Award, National Coalition of 100 Black Women, 1986
• Guggenheim Fellowship, 1988
• Lillian Smith Award, 1989.