of many social issues, including poverty, racism, homophobia, discrimination against women, and the social stratification of African Americans. Vashti Crutcher Lewis, a contributor to the Dictionary of Literary Biography, commented on the "brilliance" of Naylor's first novel, derived from "her rich prose, her lyrical portrayals of African Americans, and her illumination of the meaning of being a black woman in America." In The Women of Brewster Place and her other novels, Naylor focuses on "themes of deferred dreams of love (familial and sexual), marriage, respectability, and economic stability, while observing the recurring messages that poverty breeds violence, that true friendship and affection are not dependent on gender, and that women in the black ghettos of America bear their burdens with grace and courage," stated Lewis. Awards National Book Award for first novel, 1983 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, 1985 Candace Award, National Coalition of 100 Black Women, 1986 Guggenheim Fellowship, 1988 Lillian Smith Award, 1989. References Further reading Murphy, Kiana T., 2022. "Gloria Naylor and The Other Place of Black Feminism." American Quarterly, 74.2: 453-470. Drieling, Claudia, 2011. Constructs of "Home" in Gloria Naylor's Quartet. Würzburg, Germany: Königshausen & Neumann, 325 pp. . Montgomery, Maxine Lavon, 2010. The Fiction of Gloria Naylor: Houses and Spaces of Resistance. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press. Engles, Tim, 2009. "African American Whiteness in Gloria Naylor's Linden Hills." African American Review, 43.4: 661-679. Stave, Shirley A., ed., 2001. Gloria Naylor: Strategy and Technique, Magic and Myth. Newark: University of Delaware Press. Whitt, Margaret Ealy, 1999. Understanding Gloria Naylor. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press. Prahlad, Sw. Anand. 1998. "All chickens come home to roost: The function of proverbs in Gloria Naylor's Mama Day." Proverbium, 15: 265–282. Ward, Catherine, 1987. "Gloria Naylor's Linden Hills: A Modern Inferno." Contemporary Literature'', 28.1: 67-81. External links Biography at aalbc.com "Award Winning Author Gloria Naylor Donates Archives to SHU" Kami Fletcher, "A Tribute To Gloria Naylor: Teacher Of Black Feminism", AAIHS, November 26, 2016. 1950 births 2016 deaths 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American novelists African-American novelists American women novelists Brooklyn College alumni Former Jehovah's Witnesses National Book Award winners Yale University alumni 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American women writers African-American short story writers 20th-century short story writers 21st-century American short story writers American Book Award winners Writers from New York City 20th-century African-American women writers 20th-century African-American writers 21st-century African-American women writers 21st-century African-American writers