Maya Angelou: Author and Poet - National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled (NLS) | Library of Congress (2024)

Content last modifiedMarch 2018

Introduction

Maya Angelou was an award-winning poet, playwright, professor, theatrical producer, performer, and singer. Her honesty, strength, spirituality, and deep sense of personal pride enable Maya Angelou to write powerfully about her very complex life. The autobiographical books include memories of her childhood, her experiences as a teenage mother, her struggle to break into show business, and her political activism. Her writings have been put in special formats over several decades. The annotations given here are from the most recently produced special format book.

Maya Angelou's audience was appreciably widened when she read her poem “On the Pulse of Morning” at the request of President-elect Clinton for his first inauguration.

This minibibliography includes her autobiographical books, memoirs, and poetry available in braille and digital audiobook formats.

Digital audio titles are also available on the Braille and Audio Reading Download (BARD), which allows eligible patrons to download digital talking books and audio magazines. Patrons who wish to use BARD must have basic computer and Internet skills and a high-speed Internet connection. Some of the digital books are available only by download from BARD.

Most braille titles are available on NLS Web-Braille (available only to registered users of Web-Braille).

Autobiographical Series

These books should be read in the following order.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Memoir by well-known African American poet and college professor Maya Angelou. She describes her childhood and adolescent years in rural Arkansas, in St. Louis, and in San Francisco, and the racial and gender hardships she endured. 1969.
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Gather Together in My Name

A continuation of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, this memoir begins at the end of World War II. Angelou recalls being an unwed mother at seventeen and becoming a prostitute for an older man who deceived her. Some descriptions of sex and some strong language. 1974.
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Singin’ and Swingin’ and Gettin’ Merry Like Christmas

In this third volume of her memoirs, Angelou covers her twenties. Describes her first relationships with the white world, early motherhood, and her show business career that began when she was a dancer in a San Francisco club. 1976.
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The Heart of a Woman

Angelou continues her memoir following Singin’ and Swingin’ and Gettin’ Merry like Christmas. Describes her involvement in the 1960s civil rights movement, sharing recollections of activists such as Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin. Recounts her affair with a South African freedom fighter. Strong language. Bestseller 1981.
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All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes

African American poet, actress, civil rights activist, and television producer-director recalls a 1960s pilgrimage to Ghana to connect with her ancestral roots. Describes her sadness and disillusionment at the lack of acceptance among native Ghanaians. Some strong language. 1986.
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A Song Flung Up to Heaven

In this sixth volume of her memoirs, Angelou documents her return to America from Ghana in the 1960s to participate in the civil rights movement. Discusses the assassinations of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr., the Watts riots, her friendship with James Baldwin--and their impact on her life. Bestseller. 2002.
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Memoir and More

Hallelujah! the Welcome Table: A Lifetime of Memories with Recipes

Favorite recipes from Angelou’s southern childhood and penny-pinching days and from her more-recent repertoire of elaborate feasts. Includes anecdotes and stories of dining at home and with her good friends. Bestseller. 2004.
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Letter to My Daughter

Angelou shares life lessons in the form of reminiscences, poems, and short essays with her thousands of young daughters all over the world. In “Senegal” Angelou commits a social faux pas that her hostess graciously ignores. Bestseller. 2008.
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Wouldn’t Take Nothing for My Journey Now

A collection of short essays in which Angelou discusses the value of charity, her faith in God, and the deaths of loved ones. She shares her thoughts on discovering an authentic personal style, the insidious effects of racism, and pregnancy as an experience shared by a woman and her mate. Angelou also includes reminiscences of her childhood in Stamps, Arkansas; of being a single mother; and of dancing with Alvin Ailey.
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Poetry

And Still I Rise

A book of verse celebrating life, love, womanhood, and remembrance. 1978.
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The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou

In this collection of more than 150 poems, Angelou celebrates the lives of black people, though many of her poems are universal in their appeal. She uses speech patterns of southern blacks and of the street-wise hip, the currents of blues and jazz, and the rhythm of rap. The collection includes “Still I Rise” and “On the Pulse of Morning.” 1994.
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I Shall Not be Moved

A collection of poetry on the joys and pathos, pains and triumphs of African American life by the noted author, poet, civil rights activist, and producer-director of the stage and screen. 1990.
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Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ‘Fore I Diiie ; the Poetry of Maya Angelou

Collection of warm, joyful, raging, and proud poems that reflect the sense of life, love, and loneliness. 1971.
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Maya Angelou: Author and Poet - National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled (NLS) | Library of Congress (2024)

FAQs

What is the most likely reason author Maya included this passage? ›

What is the most likely reason author Maya Angelou included this passage? To explain her viewpoint on the wonders of reading.

What can you infer from the fact that Maya Angelou worked in so many different fields? ›

From the fact that Maya Angelou worked in so many different fields, one can infer that she was a highly versatile and adaptive individual with a broad range of interests and skills.

What does the line of the poem by Maya Angelou "Take the Binders from Your Vision" mean? ›

Answer: The line of the poem by Maya Angelou, “take the binders from your vision”, means that the. The author has placed the binders to someone's ears. The author is persuading the people to see their real situation.

What published works did Maya Angelou write? ›

Subsequent volumes of autobiography include Gather Together in My Name (1974), Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas (1976), The Heart of a Woman (1981), All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes (1986), A Song Flung Up to Heaven (2002), and Mom & Me & Mom (2013).

What is the message of Maya? ›

Maya means that the world is not as it seems; the world that one experiences is misleading as far as its true nature is concerned." Lynn Foulston states, "The world is both real and unreal because it exists but is 'not what it appears to be'." According to Wendy Doniger, "to say that the universe is an illusion (māyā) ...

What did Maya do before she became a famous writer? ›

She became a poet and writer after a string of odd jobs during her young adulthood. These included fry cook, sex worker, nightclub performer, Porgy and Bess cast member, Southern Christian Leadership Conference coordinator, and correspondent in Egypt and Ghana during the decolonization of Africa.

What is the message behind the poem? ›

Message is the thing that encourages poets to create poetry. The message can be found after knowing the meaning of poetry. Message or advice is captured by readers as the impression after reading the poem. How the reader to conclude message poetry is closely related to the point of view of the reader toward something.

What is the idea behind the poem? ›

The central idea is what the poet is writing aboutor conveying to the reader. The message of the poem is the poet's feelings of position regarding the central idea. For example, the central idea of a poem might be war. The message might be opposition to war, the devastation, loss, suffering.

What is the central theme of Maya Angelou's poem I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings? ›

The poem reflects the facts of racial segregation or social discrimination in American society against black people. Using the metaphors of caged and free birds, Maya Angelou has highlighted the nature of captivity and the importance of American ideals of freedom and liberty.

What is Maya Angelou's poetry mainly about? ›

Maya Angelou's poems are often about love, loss, loneliness, and experiences with racism. She writes about all these things both from a personal perspective and from the perspective of African American women as a whole.

Why did Maya Angelou go mute? ›

Returning to her mother's care briefly at the age of seven, Angelou was raped by her mother's boyfriend. He was later jailed and then killed when released from jail. Believing that her confession of the trauma had a hand in the man's death, Angelou became mute for six years.

Why is Maya Angelou so famous? ›

A poet, singer, autobiographer, and civil rights activist, Maya Angelou inspires us with both the beauty and the call to action of her words. Her most famous work is I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, an autobiography about her childhood. The book is a testament to the need for resilience in the face of discrimination.

Which author encouraged Maya to write the stories of her life? ›

When Angelou returned to the United States in the mid-1960s, she was encouraged by author James Baldwin and Robert Loomis, an editor at Random House, to write an autobiography. Initially, Angelou declined the offers, but eventually changed her mind and wrote I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.

Why did Maya write poems? ›

Angelou studied and began writing poetry at a young age, and used poetry and other great literature to cope with trauma, as she described in her first and most well-known autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.

Who helped Maya to start talking and reading again? ›

Maya and her brother returned to live with their grandmother and during her 5 years of silence, Maya was introduced to literature. Eventually, a teacher and family friend, Bertha Flowers, helped her to speak again, using the power of the written word.

Who helped Maya develop a love of books and literature? ›

Bertha Flowers as being like women in English novels. Mrs. Flowers helps Maya rediscover her voice after her rape by encouraging her to use the words of other writers and poets.

References

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