i know why the caged bird sings book cover

She has placed in the top 10 every year for the past decade. So controversial is she that she was ranked #3 on the ALA’s top 100 list for 1990-2000 and #-2010. How could such a person possibly be included in this series?ĭespite her impressive resume, Maya Angelou is one of the most banned authors in U.S. She has been awarded the National Medal of Arts in 2000, the Lincoln Medal in 2008, and President Barack Obama awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to her in 2011. She’s won Tony and Emmy awards and Grammy Awards for Best Spoken Word album in 1993, 1995, and 2002.Īt the request of President Bill Clinton, Angelou wrote On the Pulse of Morning, which she recited live at his 1993 inauguration as U.S.

In 1972 she was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for a collection of poetry. Her 1969 autobiography, “ I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”, was nominated for a National Book Award. She died in 2014.Maya Angelou has done many things in her storied life and career along the way she has inspired millions- both here in the United States and around the world. Angelou was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2010 by President Barack Obama. She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, several books of poetry, and is credited with a list of plays, movies, and television shows spanning over 50 years.Īngelou rose to prominence with the publication of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings in 1969. Maya Angelou was an American memoirist, popular poet, and civil rights activist raised in Stamps, Arkansas.

“I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings liberates the reader into life simply because Maya Angelou confronts her own life with such a moving wonder, such a luminous dignity.”-James Baldwin Poetic and powerful, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings will touch hearts and change minds for as long as people read. Years later, in San Francisco, Maya learns that love for herself, the kindness of others, her own strong spirit, and the ideas of great authors (“I met and fell in love with William Shakespeare”) will allow her to be free instead of imprisoned. Louis, Maya is attacked by a man many times her age-and has to live with the consequences for a lifetime. Sent by their mother to live with their devout, self-sufficient grandmother in a small Southern town, Maya and her brother, Bailey, endure the ache of abandonment and the prejudice of the local “powhitetrash.” At eight years old and back at her mother’s side in St. Maya Angelou’s debut memoir is a modern American classic beloved worldwide. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings captures the longing of lonely children, the brute insult of bigotry, and the wonder of words that can make the world right. Here is a book as joyous and painful, as mysterious and memorable, as childhood itself. Her life story is told in the documentary film And Still I Rise, as seen on PBS’s American Masters.

I know why the caged bird sings book cover