Gloria Naylor was born in 1950 in New York City. Her father, Roosevelt Naylor, a transit worker, and her mother, Alberta Naylor, a telephone operator, immigrated north from rural Mississippi the year before Gloria's birth. From an early age Gloria was an avid reader, a passion she inherited from her mother, who used to go to great lengths to buy books she could not otherwise get from the Mississippi libraries because blacks were not allowed inside. Gloria was a shy and introverted child, but she found expression in a diary she kept as a young girl. This affinity for the written word continued throughout high school, where she was introduced to the English classics and where her own writing earned her praise and high marks from her teachers.

The year Gloria graduated from high school, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. The shock of this event compelled Gloria to postpone college. She chose instead to become a Jehovah's Witness missionary, and for the next seven years she traveled the country evangelizing. At age twenty-five she abandoned this effort and resumed her education, enrolling at Brooklyn College. There she experienced an awakening of sorts, realizing for the first time the importance of her identity as both a woman and a black American. She was introduced to some of the great black women writers, and this fueled her passion to produce her own work.

Naylor's early attempts at writing were hugely successful. One of her first short stories was published in Essence magazine, and soon after she negotiated a book contract. Published in 1982, that novel, The Women of Brewster Place, was an immediate success, earning her great critical praise as well as the National Book Award for the year's best first novel. From there, Naylor went on to publish Linden Hills (1985), Mama Day(1987), and Bailey's Cafe (1992). Each of these novels garnered much attention for their exploration of the modern black American experience.

In addition to her novels, Naylor has written essays and screenplays, as well as the stage adaptation of Bailey's Cafe. The Women of Brewster Placewas made into a television movie starring Oprah Winfrey, who is an ardent fan of the novel and the writer. Naylor herself is the founder of One Way Productions, an independent film company, and is also involved in a literacy program in the Bronx. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including fellowships from both the NEA and the Guggenheim Foundation, and frequently serves as a lecturer and visiting professor at universities across the country.

Books by Gloria Naylor

The Women of Brewster Place

by Gloria Naylor