Alice Walker was born in 1944 in Eatonton, Georgia, the youngest of eight children. Walker's parents, Willie Lee and Minn Lou Grant Walker, were sharecroppers. A scholarship and the title of valedictorian of her high school class enabled Walker to go to college. Today she is the well-known author of poetry, essays, short stories, and novels, including The Color Purple, for which she received the Pulitzer Prize in 1983. An African-American feminist, Walker uses her writing to explore cultural tradition, race, and gender. Walker's work on this poem about her sister spanned five years and no less than fifty drafts.