About the Author

Dr. Maya Angelou (1928-2014) was one of the most renowned and influential voices of our time. Hailed as a global renaissance woman, she was a celebrated poet, memoirist, novelist, educator, historian, producer, actor, director, filmmaker and civil rights activist. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, she was raised there and in Stamps, Arkansas. By the mid-50s, she had become a dancer, touring Europe with a production of Porgy and Bess, recorded her first album, Calypso Lady, acted Off-Broadway for the first time and wrote Cabaret for Freedom. In the 1960's. she moved to Cairo and Ghana, editing, teaching and mastering a number of languages, returning in 1964 to America to work first with Malcolm X and then with Dr. Martin Luther King. In the 1970s she wrote screenplays, composed scores, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize as a screenwriter, appeared on television and in films and published. She is renowned for her series of autobiographies, the most famous being I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, which was nominated for a National Book Award in 1970. The list of her published verse, non-fiction, and fiction includes more than 30 bestselling titles. Dr. Angelou served on two presidential c