Speaking of Stories

transforming short stories from the page to the stage

 

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ALICE WALKER

Alice Walker has been writing politically and socially provocative fiction (short stories and novels), non-fiction and poetry since the 1960s. She has won numerous awards for her stories, including the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award for The Color Purple (published in 1982). More than once, Alice has endured a backlash of criticism from the African-American writer's community that she portrays black men too harshly.  Perhaps in explanation, she published In Search of Our Mother's Garden in 1983 which contained many essays on her "womanist" ideology.  Alice continued to write prolifically and successfully throughout the 1980s, concluding that decade with her epic novel The Temple of My Familiar. In 1991 she published a children's story, Finding the Green Stone. This was soon followed by her fifth novel Possessing the Secret of Joy which chronicles the psychic trauma of one woman's life after forced genital mutilation. Between this and her next novel, By the Light of My Father's Smile, which came six years later, in September 1998, Alice continued to write and publish poetry and non-fiction. Alice's newest work is a collection of stories called The Way Forward Is With a Broken Heart. The stories combine autobiography and fiction as Alice examines the bindings and breakings of relationships with friends, family and lovers.

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