Like many late-twentieth century Black female authors, Gloria Naylor cited Toni Morrison as a primary inspiration and source of empowerment for telling stories of remarkable Black women. After reading Morrison’s 1970 novel
The Bluest Eye, Naylor committed herself to an art that would sympathetically examine the complex, unique circumstances of women disadvantaged because of both race and gender.
Naylor’s first publication, a short story in Essence magazine in 1980, was noticed by an editor at Viking Press who offered the thirty-year-old author a book contract and urged her to expand her debut manuscript. By 1982, the stage was set for The Women of Brewster Place, a collection of seven stories that separately explore and analyze a diverse cast of Black women living in low-income urban
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Citation: Muhammad, Shamael. "The Two". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 07 May 2024 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=40540, accessed 23 November 2024.]
