“What is always needed in the appreciation of art, or life, is the larger perspective. Connections made, or at least attempted, where none existed before, the straining to encompass in one's glance at the varied world the common thread, the unifying theme through immense diversity, a fearlessness of growth, of search, of looking, that enlarges the private and the public world. And yet, in our particular society, it is the narrowed and narrowing view of life that often wins”

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.