“Man corrupt everything, say Shug. He on your box of grits, in your head, and all over the radio. He try to make you think he everywhere. Soon as you think he everywhere, you think he God. But he ain't. Whenever you trying to pray, and man plop himself on the other end of it, tell him to git lost, say Shug. Conjure up the flowers, wind, water, a big rock.”

American novelist, short story writer, poet, and social activist

Alice Malsenior Tallulah-Kate Walker is an American novelist, short story writer, poet, and social activist. In 1982, she became the first African-American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, for her novel The Color Purple. Her work spans novels, short stories, non-fiction, essays, and poetry. Walker is known for writing across these forms while also speaking from her role as an activist, with a career that has ranged widely across fiction and public life.