Gloria Naylor was an American novelist born in New York City in 1950. Naylor’s parents were sharecroppers in Mississippi who moved north to seek better opportunities. Although Naylor was an excellent student who loved to read and write, she decided to forgo a college education after high school. Instead, she spent several years as a Jehovah’s Witness missionary in Florida, North Carolina, and New York. In 1975, Naylor returned to New York and enrolled in Medgar Evers College, where she briefly studied nursing before switching to English. In college, Naylor began reading the work of writers Zora Neale Hurston, Toni Morrison, and Alice Walker, whose styles would greatly influence her own writing. Naylor graduated with her bachelor’s degree in 1981 and completed an MA in African American Studies at Yale University.

Published in 1983, The Women of Brewster Place was Naylor’s highly celebrated debut novel. The text introduced many of the elements that Naylor’s writing would become known for, including her lyrical prose, her varied use of narrative techniques, and her nuanced portrayals of African American women. As her writing career gained momentum, Naylor went on to publish several more novels, including Linden Hills (1985), Mama Day (1988), and Bailey’s Cafe (1992).