Gloria Naylor

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Gloria Naylor Biography

Gloria Naylor embraces her identity as a black female writer, but she laments that the label often results in a kind of literary segregation. For Naylor, literature is at its best when it recognizes all people. Yet her own identity is often used to keep her work (and the works of other black and brown writers) in a niche separate from mainstream American fiction.

Her novel The Women of Brewster Place uses pastiche as a means toward exploring the lives of a group of African American women. The novel is a series of rich, interconnected stories. 

Facts and Trivia

  • Education has played an important role in Gloria Naylor’s life. In addition to being a graduate of Yale, she has taught at New York University, Boston University, and Cornell.
  • Faith and spirituality are also key influences in Naylor’s life and work. She joined the Jehovah’s Witnesses when she was eighteen and even worked as a missionary for a time.
  • Naylor’s breakout success, the novel The Women of Brewster Place, was completed while she was still studying at Yale.
  • The Women of Brewster Place has had many lives. The novel was released in the early 1980s, and Oprah Winfrey turned it into a miniseries at the end of that decade. In 2007, the novel was adapted into a stage musical.
  • The popularity of The Women of Brewster Place spurred Naylor to write a follow-up novel appropriately titled The Men of Brewster Place.

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Biography

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Gloria Naylor emerged as a significant literary voice in the 1980s, entering a lineage of distinguished Black American women writers. Her work explores the multifaceted experiences of Black women, resonating with themes of resilience and strength. Naylor's narratives often delve into community life, shedding light on the obstacles and triumphs of her characters.

Early Life and Influences

During the 1980s, Gloria Naylor joined the esteemed ranks of Black American female authors, a tradition initiated by Zora Neale Hurston and continued by Paule Marshall, Toni Morrison, and Alice Walker. Born to Roosevelt Naylor, a subway conductor, and Alberta McAlpin Naylor, a telephone operator, Gloria was one of three daughters raised in a family that valued diligence. Her parents, originally cotton sharecroppers from Robinson, Mississippi, had relocated to New York, eventually settling in Harlem before purchasing a modest residence in Queens. At eighteen, Naylor declined a college scholarship to embark on a journey across the rural South as a missionary for the Jehovah’s Witnesses. For seven years, she dedicated herself to spreading religious teachings while simultaneously nurturing her passion for writing.

Educational Pursuits and Literary Beginnings

Returning to New York City in 1975, Naylor juggled various jobs, predominantly as a switchboard operator in hotels, to fund her education at Brooklyn College. In 1980, she entered into marriage and completed her Bachelor of Arts in English by 1981. During this period, Naylor managed to balance three different switchboard jobs while advancing her education and crafting her stories. Her writings began to gain recognition, appearing in magazines such as Essence and Ms.. A fortuitous introduction of her work to Cork Smith, an editor at Viking Press, led to the publication of her first novel, The Women of Brewster Place, in 1982. The novel not only won the American Book Award for best debut novel but was also translated into several languages and adapted for television.

The Women of Brewster Place

The Women of Brewster Place chronicles the lives of several Black women residing on a dead-end street within a housing project in an unnamed northern American city. The diverse group of women includes individuals who are young and old, liberal and conservative, mothers and daughters, and both heterosexual and homosexual. Despite their differences, they share the common burden of poverty and endure adversities, often caused by the neglect or violence of the men in their lives. Through sheer resilience, these women manage to navigate their hardships. While some critics noted the absence of positive male characters in Naylor’s narrative, many acknowledged her intent to highlight the strength and struggles of women, leaving male characters in supporting roles.

Advanced Studies and Subsequent Works

As her debut novel was released, Naylor pursued graduate studies at Yale University, earning a master's degree in African American studies in 1983. During her time at Yale, she composed her second novel, Linden Hills, which depicts a black upper-middle-class neighborhood reminiscent of the community upbringing of a character from her first novel. Linden Hills is structured to mirror Dante’s Inferno, with the circular streets symbolizing the circles of Hell. Over four days, two young poets undertake various jobs within the neighborhood to earn money for Christmas, gradually uncovering the hollow pursuits of its residents who have sacrificed personal values in pursuit of material success.

Reception and Recognition

Linden Hills was celebrated for its rich language, dynamic characters, and bold narrative choices. Naylor's exploration of the American Dream, particularly its perilous allure for African Americans, sparked widespread admiration and discussion. By this stage, financial concerns were a thing of the past for Naylor; after 1981, she sustained herself...

(This entire section contains 972 words.)

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predominantly through her writing. She occasionally shared her expertise in academic settings, including a stint as a writer-in-residence at George Washington University during the 1983-1984 academic year.

Subsequent Novels

In 1988, Naylor released Mama Day, which centers on a Black community residing on Willow Springs, an idyllic island linked to the mainland's perils of greed and racism by a single bridge. The titular character, Miranda Day, is a century-old sorceress, single, wise, and strong. The narrative intertwines her life among the island's quirky inhabitants with a love story set in New York City. Here, Naylor shifts her focus more towards the plot rather than character development, which some critics found disappointing given her talent for crafting nuanced characters. The novel draws inspiration from Shakespeare's The Tempest and Romeo and Juliet, lending a mythic grandeur to the tale.

Acknowledging the Male Perspective

With Bailey’s Café, Naylor presented a story sequence narrated by both men and women. The Brooklyn café serves as a refuge for a diverse clientele, predominantly Black, whose stories of hardship and disillusionment unfold through their narratives, intertwined with that of the café’s owner. Notably, this work introduces Naylor’s first positive examples of masculinity and distills Shakespearean references from her earlier novels into a concluding image. Critics praised her sharp wit and deft characterization of the more unconventional figures, making it a critical favorite.

Revisiting Brewster Place

Naylor revisited the world of Brewster Place in 1998 with The Men of Brewster Place, offering readers a fresh perspective on the male characters. By incorporating passages from her initial novel, she provided continuity and introduced new characters, such as Brother Jerome, a musically gifted child with intellectual disabilities. Through this work, Naylor seemed to suggest that stories have multiple facets, offering a broader understanding of her characters.

Legacy and Impact

Gloria Naylor’s literary work resonates as a compelling voice for women, particularly urban Black women. Her novels often explore the struggles faced by Black women through history, including slavery, poverty, and lost dreams, while also highlighting the support they find within their communities. Although Naylor aspired to be identified not solely as a Black writer or a woman writer but simply as a writer, the experiences of Black women in America remained a central theme in her storytelling.

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