View source for Alice Walker

{{short description|American author and activist (born 1944)}}
{{other people}}
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{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2021}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Alice Walker
| image = Alice Walker.jpg
| caption = Walker in 2007
| birth_name = Alice Malsenior Walker
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1944|2|9}}
| birth_place = [[Eatonton, Georgia]], U.S.
| occupation = {{flatlist|
* Novelist
* short story writer
* poet
* political activist}}
| period = 1968–present
| genre = [[African-American literature]]
| notableworks = ''[[The Color Purple]]''
| spouse = {{marriage|[[Melvyn R. Leventhal]]|1967|1976|end=div}}
| partner = [[Robert L. Allen]]<br>[[Tracy Chapman]]
| children = [[Rebecca Walker]]
| awards = [[Pulitzer Prize for Fiction]] (1983)<br>[[National Book Award]] (1983)
| education = [[Spelman College]]<br>[[Sarah Lawrence College]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]])
| website = {{URL|alicewalkersgarden.com|Official website}}
| module = {{Listen| embed=yes |filename = Alice walker bbc radio4 desert island discs 19 05 2013.flac |title = Alice Walker's voice |type = speech |description = from the BBC programme ''[[Desert Island Discs]]'', May 19, 2013.<ref name="b01shstm">{{Cite episode |title= Alice Walker |series= Desert Island Discs |series-link= Desert Island Discs |url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01shstm |access-date=January 18, 2014 |station= BBC Radio 4 |date=May 19, 2013 }}</ref> }}
}}
'''Alice Malsenior Tallulah-Kate Walker''' (born February 9, 1944)<ref>{{Cite web |last=Rose |first=Mike |date=February 9, 2023|title=Today's famous birthdays list for February 9, 2023 includes celebrities Michael B. Jordan, Tom Hiddleston|url=https://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/2023/02/todays-famous-birthdays-list-for-february-9-2023-includes-celebrities-michael-b-jordan-tom-hiddleston.html |access-date=February 9, 2023 |website=[[Cleveland.com]]}}</ref> is an American novelist, short story writer, poet, and social activist. In 1982, she became the first [[African Americans|African-American]] woman to win the [[Pulitzer Prize for Fiction]], which she was awarded for her novel ''[[The Color Purple]]''.<ref name=nba1983>[https://www.nationalbook.org/awards-prizes/national-book-awards-1983 "National Book Awards – 1983"]. National Book Foundation. Retrieved March 15, 2012. (With essays by Anna Clark and Tarayi Jones from the Awards 60-year anniversary blog.)</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/alice-walker|title=The 1983 Pulitzer Prize Winner in Fiction|website=The Pulitzer Prizes|access-date=March 25, 2019}}</ref> Over the span of her career, Walker has published seventeen novels and short story collections, twelve non-fiction works, and collections of essays and poetry.

Walker, born in rural Georgia, overcame challenges such as childhood injury and [[Racial segregation in the United States|segregation]] to become high school valedictorian and graduate from [[Sarah Lawrence College]]. She began her writing career with her first book of poetry, ''Once'', and later wrote novels, including her best-known work, ''The Color Purple''. As an activist, Walker participated in the [[Civil rights movement|Civil Rights Movement]], advocated for women of color through the term "[[womanism]]," and has been involved in animal advocacy and pacifism. Additionally, she has taken a strong stance on the [[Israeli-Palestinian conflict]], supporting the [[Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions]] campaign against Israel.

Walker has faced multiple accusations of [[antisemitism]] due to her praise for British [[conspiracy theorist]] [[David Icke]] and his works, which contain antisemitic conspiracy theories, along with criticisms of her own writings.

==Early life and education ==

Alice Malsenior Walker was born in [[Eatonton, Georgia]], a rural farming town, to Willie Lee Walker and Minnie Tallulah Grant.<ref name=":5">{{cite book |last=Bates |first=Gerri |title=Alice Walker: A Critical Companion |url=https://archive.org/details/alicewalkercriti0000bate |url-access=registration |publisher=Greenwood Press |year=2005 |isbn=9780313069093 |oclc=62321382}}</ref><ref>Moore, Geneva Cobb, and Andrew Billingsley. ''Maternal Metaphors of Power in African American Women's Literature'': From Phillis Wheatley to Toni Morrison. University of South Carolina Press, 2017, {{oclc|974947406}}.</ref> Both of Walker's parents were [[Sharecropping|sharecroppers]], though her mother also worked as a [[Dressmaker|seamstress]] to earn extra money. Walker, the youngest of eight children, was first enrolled in school when she was just four years old at [[East Putnam Consolidated]].<ref name=":5" /><ref name=":06">{{cite web|url=http://www.emory.edu/alicewalker/sub-about.htm|title=About Alice Walker|last=The Officers of the Alice Walker Literary Society|publisher=Alice Walker Literary Society|access-date=June 15, 2015}}</ref>

As an eight-year-old, Walker sustained an injury to her right eye after one of her brothers fired a [[BB gun]].<ref name=":06"/> Since her family did not have access to a car, Walker could not receive immediate medical attention, causing her to become permanently [[Visual impairment|blind]] in that eye. It was after the injury to her eye that Walker began to take up reading and writing.<ref name=":5" /> The scar tissue was removed when Walker was 14, but a mark still remains. It is described in her essay "Beauty: When the Other Dancer is the Self".<ref name="Apr 20094">''World Authors 1995–2000'', 2003. Biography Reference Bank database. Retrieved April 10, 2009.</ref><ref name=":06"/>

As the schools in Eatonton were [[Racial segregation in the United States|segregated]], Walker attended the only high school available to Black students: Butler Baker High School.<ref name=":06"/> There, she went on to become [[valedictorian]], and enrolled in [[Spelman College]] in 1961 after being granted a full scholarship by the state of [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]] for having the highest academic achievements of her class.<ref name=":5" /> She found two of her professors, [[Howard Zinn]] and [[Staughton Lynd]], to be great mentors during her time at Spelman, but both were transferred two years later.<ref name=":06"/> Walker was offered another scholarship, this time from [[Sarah Lawrence College]] in [[Yonkers, New York]], and after the firing of her Spelman professor, Howard Zinn, Walker accepted the offer.<ref name="Apr 20094"/> Walker became pregnant at the start of her senior year and had an abortion; this experience, as well as the bout of [[Suicide|suicidal]] thoughts that followed, inspired much of the poetry found in ''Once'', Walker's first collection of poetry.<ref name="Apr 20094"/> Walker graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1965.<ref name="Apr 20094"/>

==Writing career==
[[File:Alice Walker signing autographs at the Zora Neale Hurston Festival of the Arts and Humanities- Eatonville, Florida.jpg|thumb| Walker signing autographs in [[Florida]] in 1990]]
Walker wrote the poems that would culminate in her first book of poetry, entitled ''Once'', while she was a student in [[East Africa]] and during her senior year at Sarah Lawrence College.<ref>{{cite web|title=Once (1968)|url=http://alicewalkersgarden.com/2010/09/book-poetry-once-1968/|website=Alice Walker The Official Website for the American Novelist & Poet|date=September 28, 2010 |access-date=March 12, 2017}}</ref> Walker would slip her poetry under the office door of her professor and mentor, [[Muriel Rukeyser]], when she was a student at Sarah Lawrence. Rukeyser then showed the poems to her [[literary agent]]. ''Once'' was published four years later by [[Harcourt (publisher)|Harcourt Brace Jovanovich]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/entertainment/books/2001/09/16/muriel-rukeyser-was-21-when-he/ec05fd62-733c-4827-9260-6c60996ec212/|title=Muriel Rukeyser was 21 when he ...|date=September 16, 2001|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|access-date=March 26, 2018|language=en-US|issn=0190-8286}}</ref><ref name="Apr 20094"/>

Following graduation, Walker briefly worked for the New York City [[Department of Welfare of Differently Abled Persons (Tamil Nadu)|Department of Welfare]], before returning to the South. She took a job working for the Legal Defense Fund of the [[NAACP|National Association for the Advancement of Colored People]] in [[Jackson, Mississippi]].<ref name=":06"/> Walker also worked as a consultant in Black history to the Friends of the Children of Mississippi Head Start program. She later returned to writing as [[Artist-in-residence|writer-in-residence]] at [[Jackson State University]] (1968–69) and [[Tougaloo College]] (1970–71). In addition to her work at Tougaloo College, Walker published her first novel, ''[[The Third Life of Grange Copeland]],'' in 1970. The novel explores the life of Grange Copeland, an abusive, irresponsible sharecropper, husband and father.

In 1973, before becoming editor of ''[[Ms. (magazine)|Ms.]]'' magazine, Walker and literary scholar Charlotte D. Hunt discovered an unmarked grave they believed to be that of [[Zora Neale Hurston]] in [[Ft. Pierce, Florida]]. Walker had it marked with a gray marker stating ZORA NEALE HURSTON / ''A GENIUS OF THE SOUTH'' / NOVELIST FOLKLORIST / ANTHROPOLOGIST / 1901–1960.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.urchinmovement.com/2013/02/05/a-headstone-for-an-aunt-how-alice-walker-found-zora-neale-hurston/|title=A Headstone for an Aunt: How Alice Walker Found Zora Neale Hurston – The Urchin Movement|website=www.urchinmovement.com}}</ref><ref name="Plant2007">{{cite book|first=Deborah G. |last=Plant|title=Zora Neale Hurston: A Biography of the Spirit|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aZfcDixewEYC&pg=PA57|year=2007|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-275-98751-0|pages=57–}}</ref> The line "a genius of the south" is from [[Jean Toomer]]'s poem ''Georgia Dusk'', which appears in his book ''[[Cane (novel)|Cane]]''.<ref name="Plant2007"/> Hurston was actually born in 1891, not 1901.<ref>{{cite book |last=Boyd |first=Valerie | author-link = Valerie Boyd |title=Wrapped in Rainbows: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston |year=2003 |publisher=Scribner |location=New York |isbn=978-0-684-84230-1 |page=[https://archive.org/details/wrappedinrainbow00boyd/page/17 17] |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/wrappedinrainbow00boyd/page/17 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Hurston |first=Lucy Anne |title=Speak, So You Can Speak Again: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston |year=2004 |publisher=Doubleday |location=New York |isbn=978-0-385-49375-8 |page=5 }}</ref>

Walker's 1975 article "[https://www.allisonbolah.com/site_resources/reading_list/Walker_In_Search_of_Zora.pdf In Search of Zora Neale Hurston]", published in ''Ms.'' magazine and later retitled "Looking for Zora", helped revive interest in the work of this Afro-American writer and anthropologist.<ref name="monica-miller">{{cite web|last1=Miller|first1=Monica|title=Archaeology of a Classic|url=http://barnard.edu/news/archaeology-classic-celebrating-zora-neale-hurston-28|website=News & Events|publisher=Barnard College|access-date=June 14, 2014|date=December 17, 2012|archive-date=July 15, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140715001314/http://barnard.edu/news/archaeology-classic-celebrating-zora-neale-hurston-28|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/639490/zora-neale-hurston-author-facts|title=9 Fascinating Facts About Zora Neale Hurston|first=Sohel|last=Sarkar|date=January 7, 2021|website=Mental Floss}}</ref>
In 1976, Walker's second novel, ''[[Meridian (novel)|Meridian]],'' was published. ''Meridian'' is a novel about activist workers in the South, during the [[civil rights movement]], with events that closely parallel some of Walker's own experiences. In 1982, she published what has become her best-known work, ''[[The Color Purple]]''. The novel follows a young, troubled Black woman who is not just fighting her way through a [[Racism|racist]] white culture, she is also fighting her way through a [[Patriarchy|patriarchal]] Black culture. The book became a bestseller, and it was subsequently adapted into a critically acclaimed [[The Color Purple (1985 film)|1985 movie]] which was directed by [[Steven Spielberg]], starring [[Oprah Winfrey]] and [[Whoopi Goldberg]], as well as a 2005 [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] [[The Color Purple (musical)|musical]] totaling 910 performances.

Walker has written several other novels, including ''[[The Temple of My Familiar]]'' (1989) and ''[[Possessing the Secret of Joy]]'' (1992) (which featured several characters and descendants of characters from ''The Color Purple''). She has published a number of collections of short stories, poetry, and other writings. Her work is focused on the struggles of [[Black people]], particularly women, and their lives in a racist, [[sexism|sexist]], and violent society.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.celebritytalent.net/sampletalent/187/alice-walker/|title=Alice Walker Booking Agent for Corporate Functions, Events, Keynote Speaking, or Celebrity Appearances|work=celebritytalent.net|access-date=October 23, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://blackhistory.com/content/61723/alice-walker|title=Alice Walker|work=blackhistory.com|access-date=October 23, 2015|archive-date=September 10, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150910011201/http://blackhistory.com/content/61723/alice-walker|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.biblio.com/alice-walker~125189~author|title=Alice Walker|work=biblio.com|access-date=October 23, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.litlovers.com/reading-guides/13-fiction/211-color-purple-walker?start=1|title=The Color Purple – Alice Walker – Author Biography – LitLovers|first=Molly |last=Lundquist|work=litlovers.com|access-date=October 23, 2015}}</ref><ref>[http://marylandpublicschools.org/NR/rdonlyres/F68E8866-61CB-4AF5-8AE6-F9275A9CEE9C/35632/Everday_Use_04042013_.pdf "Analyzing Characterization and Point of View in Alice Walker's Short Fiction"], marylandpublicschools.org. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130514143531/http://marylandpublicschools.org/NR/rdonlyres/F68E8866-61CB-4AF5-8AE6-F9275A9CEE9C/35632/Everday_Use_04042013_.pdf |date=May 14, 2013 }}</ref>

In 1993, Alice Walker coauthored a novel, ''[[Warrior Marks]],'' alongside feminist activist, Pratibha Parmar. The novel was based on the topic of ''[[Female genital mutilation|Female Genital Mutilation]]'' (FGM) and the Sexual Blinding of Women. The novel takes place in Africa, where the two of them collectively interview several survivors of FGM. The novel seeks to unearth the sociocultural rationale behind the practice by providing a platform to activists who stand in opposition to this issue.

In 2000, Walker released a collection of short fiction, based on her own life, called ''The Way Forward Is With a Broken Heart,'' exploring love and race relations. In this book, Walker details her [[Miscegenation|interracial]] relationship with [[Melvyn R. Leventhal|Melvyn Rosenman Leventhal]], a civil rights attorney who was also working in [[Mississippi]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2001/feb/25/fiction.features1|title=Interview: Alice Walker|last=Campbell|first=Duncan|author-link=Duncan Campbell (journalist, born 1944)|date=February 25, 2001|newspaper=[[The Observer]]|language=en|access-date=March 26, 2018}}</ref> The couple married on March 17, 1967, in New York City, since interracial marriage was then illegal in the South, and divorced in 1976.<ref name="Apr 20094"/> They had a daughter, Rebecca, together in 1969.<ref name=":06"/> [[Rebecca Walker]], Alice Walker's only child, is an American novelist, editor, artist, and activist. The [[Third Wave Foundation]], an activist fund, was co-founded by Rebecca and [[Shannon Liss-Riordan]].<ref name=":2">{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/18/fashion/18walker.html|title=Alice Walker – Rebecca Walker – Feminist – Feminist Movement – Children|last=Rosenbloom|first=Stephanie|date=March 18, 2007|work=The New York Times|access-date=March 26, 2018|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.centerfornonprofitexcellence.org/grantmakers-directory/third-wave-foundation|title=Third Wave Foundation|last=test|date=January 5, 2011|website=Center for Nonprofit Excellence in Central New Mexico|language=en|access-date=March 26, 2018|archive-date=April 5, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180405090539/https://www.centerfornonprofitexcellence.org/grantmakers-directory/third-wave-foundation|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://thirdwavefund.org/history--past-initiatives.html|title=Third Wave History|website=Third Wave Fund|language=en|access-date=August 2, 2019|archive-date=July 21, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190721221832/https://www.thirdwavefund.org/history--past-initiatives.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> Her godmother is Alice Walker's mentor and co-founder of ''Ms.'' magazine, [[Gloria Steinem]].<ref name=":2" />

In 2007, Walker donated her papers, consisting of 122 boxes of manuscripts and archive material, to [[Emory University]]'s Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library.<ref>{{cite press release |last=Justice|first=Elaine |url= http://www.emory.edu/news/Releases/alice_walker_archive_1197997696.html |title=Alice Walker Places Her Archive at Emory |publisher=Emory University |date=December 18, 2007}}</ref> In addition to drafts of novels such as ''The Color Purple'', unpublished poems and manuscripts, and correspondence with editors, the collection includes extensive correspondence with family members, friends and colleagues, early treatment of the film script for ''[[The Color Purple (1985 film)|The Color Purple]]'', syllabi from courses she taught, and fan mail. The collection also contains a scrapbook of poetry compiled when Walker was 15, entitled "Poems of a Childhood Poetess".

In 2013, Alice Walker published two new books, one of them entitled ''The Cushion in the Road: Meditation and Wandering as the Whole World Awakens to Being in Harm's Way''. The other was a book of poems entitled ''The World Will Follow Joy: Turning Madness into Flowers (New Poems)''.

==Activism==
[[File:Ms. magazine Cover - Fall 2009(1).jpg|thumbnail|Walker (left) and [[Gloria Steinem]] on the Fall 2009 cover of ''[[Ms. (magazine)|Ms.]]'' magazine]]

=== Civil rights ===

Walker met [[Martin Luther King Jr.]] when she was a student at [[Spelman College]] in the early 1960s. She credits King for her decision to return to the [[American South]] as an activist in the [[Civil Rights Movement]]. She took part in the [[1963 March on Washington]] with hundreds of thousands of people. Later, she volunteered to register Black voters in Georgia and Mississippi.<ref>[http://www.democracynow.org/2006/11/17/inner_light_in_a_time_of Walker Interview transcript and audio file on "Inner Light in A time of darkness"], ''Democracy Now!'', November 17, 2006. Retrieved February 10, 2010.</ref><ref>[http://www.democracynow.org/2009/1/20/pulitzer_prize_winning_writer_alice_waters "Pulitzer-Winning Writer Alice Walker & Civil Rights Leader Bob Moses Reflect on an Obama Presidency"], ''Democracy Now!'' video on the African-American vote, January 20, 2009. Retrieved February 10, 2010.</ref>

On March 8, 2003, [[International Women's Day]], on the eve of the [[Iraq War]], Walker was arrested with 26 others, including fellow authors [[Maxine Hong Kingston]] and [[Terry Tempest Williams]], at a protest outside the [[White House]], for crossing a police line during an anti-war rally. Walker wrote about the experience in her essay "We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For".<ref>{{cite press release|date=January 5, 2006 |url=http://www.codepinkalert.org/article.php?id=707 |title=Global Women Launch Campaign to End Iraq War |access-date=February 12, 2010 |publisher=CodePink: Women for Peace |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100409122421/http://www.codepinkalert.org/article.php?id=707 |archive-date=April 9, 2010 }}</ref>

=== Womanism ===

Walker's specific brand of [[feminism]] included advocacy on behalf of women of color. In 1983, Walker coined the term ''[[Womanism|womanist]]'' in her collection ''[[In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens]]'', to mean "a Black feminist or feminist of color". The term was made to unite women of color and the feminist movement at "the intersection of race, class, and gender oppression".<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Deeper shades of purple : womanism in religion and society|date=2006|publisher=New York University Press|others=Floyd-Thomas, Stacey M., 1969–|isbn=978-0814727522|location=New York|oclc=64688636}}</ref> Walker states that "'Womanism' gives us a word of our own".<ref>Wilma Mankiller and others, "Womanism". ''The Reader's Companion to U.S. Women's History''. December 1, 1998. SIRS Issue Researcher. Indian Hills Library, Oakland, NJ. January 9, 2013,<!--<http://sirs.com>--> p. 1.</ref> because it is a discourse of Black women and the issues they confront in society. Womanism as a movement came into fruition in 1985 at the [[American Academy of Religion]] and the [[Society of Biblical Literature]] to address Black women's concerns from their own intellectual, physical, and spiritual perspectives."<ref name=":0" /> Today, her womanist ideology still persists within several movements including the [[Black Lives Matter]] Movement that was formed by Black women in response to overwhelming police brutality against Black males. The philosophy of womanism also served as the fundamental basis for the [[MeToo movement|#MeToo]] Movement in which women publicly expressed their experiences of sexual abuse and harassment.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Henry |first=Carmel |title=A Brief History of Civil Rights in the United States |url=https://library.law.howard.edu/civilrightshistory/womanist#:~:text=The%20term%20'womanist'%20was%20coined,women,%20men,%20and%20families. |access-date=2024-11-01 |website=library.law.howard.edu |language=en}}</ref>

=== Feminist advocacy ===
Walker's idea of feminist advocacy emerged in her work, ''[[In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens]]'', specifically in the essay, ''[[In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens#:~:text="If the Present Looks Like,and darker skinned black women.|If the Present Looked Like the Past, what would the future Look Like?]]''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Walker |first=Alice |title=If the Present Looks Like the Past |date=1966}}</ref> In her piece, she reflects on the modern injustices and historical oppression of the feminist movement. She also touches upon the need for compassion, empathy and awareness on behalf of Black women to overcome the past atrocities such as slavery and colonialism. In the end, the essay provides both a critique on the Black feminist movement and a call to action for readers to liberate themselves from discrimination.

=== Israeli–Palestinian conflict ===

Walker is a judge member of the [[Russell Tribunal#2009–2014: On Palestine (Barcelona, London, Cape Town, New York, Brussels)|Russell Tribunal on Palestine]], and she also supports the [[Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions]] campaign against Israel.<ref>{{cite news |url= https://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21577393-campaign-boycott-israel-threatens-spoil-some-palestinians-fun |title= Palestinians in Israel: Boycotting the boycotters |newspaper=The Economist |location =London |author=Tiberias |date=May 11, 2013}}</ref>

In January 2009, Walker was one of over fifty signatories of a letter protesting against the [[Toronto International Film Festival]]'s "City to City" spotlight on Israeli filmmakers, and condemning Israel as an "[[apartheid]] regime".<ref>{{cite news |url= http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/sep/05/filmmakers-react-anti-israel-film-festival-protest/ |title=Toronto film festival ignites anti-Israel boycott |newspaper=The Washington Times |author=Brown, Barry |date=September 5, 2009 |access-date=August 1, 2012}}</ref> Two months later, Walker and sixty other female activists from the anti-war group [[Code Pink]] traveled to [[Gaza City|Gaza]] in response to the [[Gaza War (2008–09)|Gaza War]]. Their purpose was to deliver aid, meet with NGOs and residents, and persuade Israel and Egypt to open their borders with Gaza. She planned to visit Gaza again in December 2009 to participate in the [[Gaza Freedom March]].<ref>[http://www.gazafreedommarch.org/article.php?id=5063 Gaza Freedom March] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090903212614/http://www.gazafreedommarch.org/article.php?id=5063 |date=September 3, 2009 }}. Retrieved February 2010.</ref> On June 23, 2011, she announced plans to participate in an aid [[flotilla]] to Gaza that attempted to break Israel's naval blockade.<ref>{{cite news |last=Harman |first=Danna |url= https://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/author-alice-walker-to-take-part-in-gaza-flotilla-despite-u-s-warning-1.369262 |title=Author Alice Walker to take part in Gaza flotilla, despite U.S. warning |newspaper=Haaretz |location=Tel Aviv |date=June 23, 2011 |access-date=August 1, 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url= https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/jun/26/israel-accused-gaza-flotilla-journalists |location=London |work=The Guardian |first=Conal |last=Urquhart |title=Israel accused of trying to intimidate Gaza flotilla journalists |date=June 26, 2011}}</ref>

In May 2013, Walker posted an open letter to singer [[Alicia Keys]], asking her to cancel a planned concert in [[Tel Aviv]]. "I believe we are mutually respectful of each other's path and work," Walker wrote. "It would grieve me to know you are putting yourself in danger (soul danger) by performing in an apartheid country that is being boycotted by many global conscious artists." Keys rejected the plea.<ref>{{cite web|author=David Itzkoff| title =Despite Protests, Alicia Keys Says She Will Perform in Tel Aviv| work =The New York Times| url =http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/31/despite-protests-alicia-keys-says-she-will-perform-in-tel-aviv/|date=May 31, 2013 }}</ref> Walker has refused to allow ''[[The Color Purple]]'' to be translated and published in Hebrew,<ref name="TimesOfIsrael-2012">{{cite news |title=Alice Walker says no to Hebrew 'Purple' |newspaper=Times of Israel |date=June 19, 2012 |url=http://www.timesofisrael.com/alice-walker-refuses-to-authorize-hebrew-version-of-the-color-purple/}}</ref><ref name="NP2013">{{cite web|url=https://nationalpost.com/opinion/jonathan-kay-where-israel-hatred-meets-space-lizards|title=Where Israel hatred meets space lizards|last=Kay|first=Jonathan|date=June 7, 2013|work=National Post|archive-url=https://archive.today/20131130034713/http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2013/06/07/jonathan-kay-where-israel-hatred-meets-space-lizards/|archive-date=November 30, 2013|url-status=live}}</ref> saying that she finds that "Israel is guilty of apartheid and persecution of the Palestinian people, both inside Israel and also in the Occupied Territories" and noting that she had refused to allow [[Steven Spielberg|Steven Spielberg's]] film adaptation of her novel to be shown in South Africa until the system of [[apartheid]] was dismantled.<ref>{{cite web | last=Itzkoff | first=Dave | title=In Protest, Walker Won't Allow Hebrew Translation of 'The Color Purple' | website=ArtsBeat | date=2012-06-19 | url=http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/19/in-protest-walker-wont-allow-hebrew-translation-of-the-color-purple/ | access-date=2022-05-15}}</ref>

===Support for Chelsea Manning and Julian Assange===

In June 2013, Walker and others appeared in a video expressing their support for [[Chelsea Manning]], an American soldier who was imprisoned for releasing [[classified information]].<ref>{{cite web| last =Gavin| first =Patrick| title =Celeb video: 'I am Bradley Manning'| work =Politico| date =June 19, 2013| url =https://www.politico.com/story/2013/06/celebrity-bradley-manning-video-93041.html}}</ref> In recent years, Walker has spoken out repeatedly in support of [[Julian Assange]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Julian Assange is not on trial for his personality – but here's how the US government made you focus on it |first=Noam|last=Chomsky|author-link=Noam Chomsky|author2=Alice Walker|website=[[Independent.co.uk]]|date=September 9, 2020|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/julian-assange-trial-us-trump-chelsea-manning-chomsky-walker-b420930.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200909164523/https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/julian-assange-trial-us-trump-chelsea-manning-chomsky-walker-b420930.html |archive-date=2020-09-09 |url-access=limited |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Assange Defence Committee: Launch Event |website = [[YouTube]]| date=September 5, 2020 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiPXFeL3KQU| archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211031/ZiPXFeL3KQU| archive-date=2021-10-31 | url-status=live}}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Artist Alice Walker |url=https://artistsforassange.org/alice-walker/ |website=Artists for Assange}}</ref> Founder of Wikileaks, Assange was considered a large threat to U.S. national security during the Obama administration, as he revealed classified intelligence information surrounding war crimes and human rights violations in [[Iraq]], [[Afghanistan]], and [[Guantanamo Bay detention camp|Guantanamo]] Bay. Subsequently, Assange was arrested after attempting to seek refuge in the Ecuador embassy in London. He was later extradited to the U.S. and prosecuted on criminal charges. In light of these developments, Alice Walker published an Opinion Editorial taking aim at the US justice system and calling for the vindication of the charges brought against Assange.<ref>{{Cite web |last=CourageA |date=2022-10-10 |title=Alice Walker pens Kansas City Star op-ed: Biden must end Trump's war on the press. Drop the Julian Assange case |url=https://assangedefense.org/press-release/alice-walker-pens-kansas-city-star-op-ed-biden-must-end-trumps-war-on-the-press-drop-the-julian-assange-case/ |access-date=2024-11-01 |website=Assange Defense |language=en-US}}</ref> Moreover, Walker also took part in a panel discussion in Berkeley, California for the purpose of freeing Assange.

=== Animal advocacy ===
Walker has expressed that [[Animal rights movement|animal advocacy]] is one of her central concerns. Her fiction has increasingly embraced [[animal ethics]] over the past four decades, as she works to include animals as both active participants in her novels and as symbols for what she has called "consciousness." Her earliest fiction represents nonhuman animals inasmuch as they are part of human life – namely as farmed animals, food sources, and absent referents for animalized [[epithet]]s directed at humans, and her fiction increasingly incorporates the animal experience.<ref>{{Cite book |last=June |first=Pamela B. |title=Solidarity with the Other Beings on the Planet: Alice Walker, Ecofeminism, and Animals in Literature |publisher=Northwestern University Press |year=2020 |edition=1st |language=English}}</ref> She has advocated for greater consciousness in human beings and their relationships with animals, stating: "Encouraging others to love nature, to respect other human beings and animals, to adore this earth, is part of my work in this world."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Outka |first=Paul |title=Race and Nature from Transcendentalism to the Harlem Renaissance |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |year=2008 |location=New York |pages=115 |language=English}}</ref>

===Pacifism===

Walker has been a longtime sponsor of the [[Women's International League for Peace and Freedom]]. In early 2015, she wrote: "So I think of any movement for peace and justice as something that is about stabilizing our inner spirit so that we can go on and bring into the world a vision that is much more humane than the one we have dominant today."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://wilpfus.org/emailArchives/PresidentsCorner/2015_01_15.html|title=From the President's Corner|author=Harrison, Mary Hanson|publisher=WILPF|date=January 20, 2015|access-date=January 26, 2019|archive-date=December 17, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211217181056/https://wilpfus.org/emailArchives/PresidentsCorner/2015_01_15.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> She has written several works that convey her pacifist views, those including ''The Same River Twice'' and ''We are the Ones We have been Waiting for: Inner Light in a Time of Darkness.'' She discusses the importance for establishing an equitable and peaceful society.<ref>{{Cite web |title=EXCERPT FROM WE ARE THE ONES WE HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR BY ALICE WALKER |url=https://www.feminist.com/resources/artspeech/genwom/wearetheones.html |access-date=2024-10-28 |website=www.feminist.com}}</ref>

=== Transgender rights ===
In 2023, Walker publicly defended [[J. K. Rowling]] from criticisms of her views regarding trans people. Walker wrote on her website: "I consider J.K. Rowling perfectly within her rights as a human being of obvious caring for humanity to express her views about whatever is of concern to her. As she has done."<ref>[https://alicewalkersgarden.com/2023/03/theyre-trying-to-burn-the-wrong-witch-the-witch-trials-of-j-k-rowling-redacted-news/ Walker, Alice. They're trying to burn the WRONG Witch – The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling | Redacted.]</ref> She herself expressed the view that women were being "erased" in language, dictionaries and society, and that "confusion" with respect to gender had led to hasty [[sex reassignment surgery|sex reassignment surgeries]], at least when minors were concerned. Walker was criticized on social media for taking this position with many referring to her as a [[TERF]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=McClure |first1=Kelly |title=Alice Walker defends J.K. Rowling's TERF views in new essay |url=https://www.salon.com/2023/03/10/alice-walker-defends-jk-rowlings-terf-views-in-new-essay/ |website=Salon |date=March 11, 2023 |access-date=May 25, 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Dawson |first1=Shannon |title=Alice Walker Labeled A TERF For Siding With J.K. Rowling's Trans Exclusionary Views |url=https://madamenoire.com/1337996/alice-walker-slammed-for-defending-jk-rowling/ |website=madamenoire.com |date=March 14, 2023 |publisher=Madame Noire |access-date=30 March 2023}}</ref> In a subsequent essay, Walker addressed trans people, stating: "I fully understand that your life belongs to you; therefore whatever changes you make, I offer my prayers for a beautiful transformation and complete recovery", and acknowledged that one of the "most loving and balanced people" she knew was a trans man.<ref>[https://alicewalkersgarden.com/2023/03/beloved-young-trans-people/ Walker, Alice. Beloved young trans people.]</ref>

== Accusations of antisemitism and praise for David Icke ==

Since 2012, Walker has expressed appreciation for the works of the British conspiracy theorist [[David Icke]].<ref name="Malcolm">{{cite web|url=http://alicewalkersgarden.com/2012/12/david-icke-and-malcolm-x/|title=Commentary: David Icke and Malcolm X|author=Walker, Alice|date=December 2012|work=Alice Walker's Garden}}</ref><ref name="Indy2013">{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/prizewinning-author-alice-walker-gives-support-to-david-icke-on-desert-island-discs-8622648.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130520095838/http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/prizewinning-author-alice-walker-gives-support-to-david-icke-on-desert-island-discs-8622648.html |archive-date=2013-05-20 |url-access=limited |url-status=live|title=Prize-winning author Alice Walker gives support to David Icke on Desert Island Discs|last=O'Brien|first=Liam|date=May 19, 2013|work=The Independent on Sunday|location=London|access-date=April 2, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://alicewalkersgarden.com/2013/07/david-icke-we-are-change/|title=David Icke: The People's Voice|author=Walker, Alice|date=July 2013|work=Alice Walker's Garden}}</ref> On [[BBC Radio 4]]'s ''[[Desert Island Discs]]'', she said that Icke's book ''Human Race Get Off Your Knees: The Lion Sleeps No More'', which contains antisemitic conspiracy theories, would be the book she would take to a desert island.<ref name="Indy2013" /><ref name="b01shstm" /> The book promotes the theory that the Earth is ruled by [[shapeshifting]] [[reptilian humanoid]]s and "Rothschild Zionists". [[Jonathan Kay]] of the ''[[National Post]]'' described this book (and Icke's other books) as "hateful, hallucinogenic nonsense". Kay wrote that Walker's public praise for Icke's book was "stunningly offensive" and that by taking it seriously, she was disqualifying herself "from the mainstream marketplace of ideas".<ref name="NP2013" /> In 2013, the [[Anti-Defamation League]] called [[Anti-Zionism|anti-Zionist]] essays in Walker's book ''The Cushion in the Road'' "replete with fervently anti-Jewish ideas" and it also stated that Walker was "unabashedly infected with anti-Semitism".<ref>{{Cite web |last=Informer |first=Washington |date=2013-06-25 |title=Alice Walker Writings Draw Fresh Attack from Anti-Defamation League |url=http://www.washingtoninformer.com/alice-walker-writings-draw-fresh-attack-from-anti-defamation-league/ |access-date=2022-10-13 |website=The Washington Informer |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |title=ADL: Alice Walker Conveys 'Fervently anti-Jewish Ideas' in New Book |language=en |work=Haaretz |url=https://www.haaretz.com/2013-06-18/ty-article/.premium/adl-alice-walkers-book-anti-jewish/0000017f-f5c5-d318-afff-f7e75f760000 |date=June 18, 2013|access-date=2022-10-13}}</ref>

On her blog in 2017, Walker published a poem which she titled "It Is Our (Frightful) Duty to Study The [[Talmud]]", recommending that the reader should start with [[YouTube]] to learn about the allegedly shocking aspects of the Talmud, describing it as "poison". The poem contained [[antisemitic trope]]s and arguments.<ref>{{cite web |last=Walker |first=Alice |title=It Is Our (Frightful) Duty |url=http://alicewalkersgarden.com/2017/11/it-is-our-frightful-duty-to-study-the-talmud/ |website=Alice Walker: The Official Website |date=November 2, 2017 |access-date=December 17, 2018}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Grady |first=Constance |date=2018-12-20 |title=The Alice Walker anti-Semitism controversy, explained |url=https://www.vox.com/culture/2018/12/20/18146628/alice-walker-david-icke-anti-semitic-new-york-times |access-date=2022-07-03 |website=Vox |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |title=The New York Times assailed for Alice Walker interview endorsing 'anti-Semitic' conspiracy theorist |first= Isaac |last=Stanley-Becker|language=en-US |newspaper=The Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2018/12/18/new-york-times-criticized-alice-walker-interview-touting-book-that-blames-jews-holocaust/ |date=December 18, 2018|access-date=2022-07-03 |issn=0190-8286}}</ref> In it, she also "describes her reaction when a Jewish friend", later stated to be [[Melvyn R. Leventhal|her ex-husband]], accused her "of appearing to be antisemitic".<ref>{{cite news |title=Alice Walker Has 'No Regrets' |first=Elizabeth A. |last=Harris |newspaper=The New York Times |date=24 April 2022 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/23/books/alice-walker-book.html}}</ref>

In 2018, an interviewer from ''[[The New York Times Book Review]]'' asked Walker "What books are on your nightstand?" She listed Icke's ''And the Truth Shall Set You Free,'' a book promoting an [[Antisemitism|antisemitic]] [[conspiracy theory]] which draws on ''[[The Protocols of the Elders of Zion]]'' and [[Holocaust denial|questions the Holocaust]]. Walker said: "In Icke's books there is the whole of existence, on this planet and several others, to think about. A curious person's dream come true."<ref name="NYT20181221">{{cite news|last=Alter|first=Alexandra|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/21/arts/alice-walker-david-icke-times.html|title=Alice Walker, Answering Backlash, Praises Anti-Semitic Author as 'Brave'|work=The New York Times|date=December 21, 2018|access-date=April 2, 2020}}</ref><ref name="TJC2018">{{cite news|last=Doherty|first=Rosa|url=https://www.thejc.com/news/world/acclaimed-author-alice-walker-recommends-book-by-notorious-conspiracy-theorist-david-icke-1.474057|title=Acclaimed author Alice Walker recommends book by notorious conspiracy theorist David Icke|work=The Jewish Chronicle|date=December 17, 2018|access-date=April 2, 2020}}</ref> The publication of the interview in the "By the Book" weekly column generated significant criticism of Walker and the ''New York Times Book Review''.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Miller |first1=Laura |title=Why Alice Walker Got All That Space in the Times to Tout the Anti-Semitic Lizard People Guy |url=https://slate.com/culture/2018/12/alice-walker-and-david-icke-the-new-york-times-by-the-book-feature-controversy.html |website=slate.com |date=December 19, 2018 |publisher=Slate |access-date=13 October 2022}}</ref> The ''Review'' was criticized for publishing the interview as well as for failing to contextualize ''And the Truth Shall Set You Free'' as an antisemitic work.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Branigin |first1=Anne |title=Pulitzer Prize Winner Alice Walker, New York Times Catch Heat After She Recommends Anti-Semitic Book |url=https://www.theroot.com/pulitzer-prize-winner-alice-walker-new-york-times-catc-1831177782 |website=theroot.com |date=December 18, 2018 |publisher=The Root |access-date=13 October 2022}}</ref> Walker defended her admiration for Icke and his book, saying: "I do not believe he is anti-Semitic or anti-Jewish".<ref name="HaaretzBook">{{cite news |title=Alice Walker Defends Endorsement of anti-Semitic Book |url=https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/alice-walker-defends-endorsement-of-anti-semitic-book-in-nyt-1.6767722 |access-date=December 24, 2018 |agency=JTA |newspaper=Haaretz |date=December 22, 2018}}</ref> Walker argued that any "attempt to smear David Icke, and by association, me, is really an effort to dampen the effect of our speaking out in support of the people of Palestine".<ref>{{cite news |last1=Spiro |first1=Amy |title=Alice Walker: Antisemitism claims 'smears' against me |url=https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/alice-walker-endorses-antisemitic-tract-in-a-new-york-times-feature-574760 |newspaper=The Jerusalem Post &#124; Jpost.com |publisher=The Jerusalem Post|date=20 December 2018 |access-date=13 October 2022}}</ref> Following the controversy [[Roxane Gay]] argued that "Alice Walker has been anti-Semitic for years". The NYT released a statement that the contents of the interview "do not imply an endorsement by Times editors".<ref>{{cite web |last1=Schaub |first1=Michael |title=Author Alice Walker under fire for endorsing book by 'anti-Semitic conspiracy theorist' |url=https://www.latimes.com/books/la-et-jc-alice-walker-backlash-20181218-story.html |website=[[Los Angeles Times]] |date=December 18, 2018 |access-date=13 October 2022}}</ref>

In 2019, [[Ayanna Pressley]] disavowed antisemitism after an uproar ensued following her tweeting of an Alice Walker quote. She tweeted "I fully condemn and denounce anti-Semitism, prejudice and bigotry in all their forms – and the hateful actions they embolden" and said she had been unaware of Walker's statements on the issue.<ref>{{cite web |last1=DeCosta-Klipa |first1=Nik |title=Ayanna Pressley condemns anti-Semitism after quoting Alice Walker |url=https://www.boston.com/news/politics/2019/01/14/ayanna-pressley-alice-walker/ |website=boston.com |date=January 14, 2019|access-date=13 October 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Birnbaum |first1=Emily |title=Dem rep apologizes for quoting Alice Walker: 'I was unaware of the author's past statements' |url=https://thehill.com/homenews/house/425264-dem-rep-apologizes-for-quoting-alice-walker-i-was-unaware-of-the-authors-past/ |website=thehill.com |date=January 14, 2019 |publisher=The Hill |access-date=13 October 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Bollag |first1=Uri |title=Congresswoman apologizes for quoting Alice Walker; condemns antisemitism |url=https://www.jpost.com/international/congresswoman-apologizes-for-quoting-alice-walker-condemns-antisemitism-577435 |website=jpost.com |publisher=The Jerusalem Post |date=January 15, 2019|access-date=13 October 2022}}</ref>

In 2020, after learning about Walker's perceived support of anti-Semitism, the host of the ''New York Times'' podcast ''Sugar Calling'' described herself as "mortified" for having hosted Walker on her show and she also said: "If I'd known, I wouldn't have asked Alice Walker to be on the show."<ref>{{Cite news |date=2020-05-08 |title=The New York Times Accidentally, Uncritically Promotes Alice Walker–Again|first=Yair|last=Rosenberg |url=https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/alice-walker-cheryl-strayed-new-york-times |access-date=2022-05-05 |website=Tablet Magazine}}</ref>

In April 2022, [[Gayle King]] of CBS News was criticized for interviewing Walker without challenging her anti-Semitic writings.  After the interview, King released a statement, saying: "These are not only legitimate questions, they are mandatory questions. I certainly would have asked her about the criticisms, if I had been aware of them before the interview with Ms.&nbsp;Walker."<ref>{{Cite web |title=Gayle King Under Fire For Not Grilling Alice Walker About Anti-Semitism In Recent Interview |url=https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/gayle-king-under-fire-not-132755198.html |first=Natasha|last= Decker|date=April 17, 2022|access-date=2022-05-05 |website=www.yahoo.com |language=en-US |archive-date=May 5, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220505015635/https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/gayle-king-under-fire-not-132755198.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In 2022, Walker was disinvited from the [[Bay Area Book Festival]] due to what the organizers referred to as her "endorsement of anti-Semitic conspiracy theorist David Icke".<ref>{{cite web |last1=Carter |first1=Josh |title=Mississippi Book Festival sticking with Alice Walker despite her link to conspiracy theorist |url=https://www.wlbt.com/2022/04/19/mississippi-book-festival-sticking-with-alice-walker-despite-her-link-conspiracy-theorist/ |website=wlbt.com |date=April 19, 2022 |publisher=WLBT |access-date=13 October 2022}}</ref> An invitation for Walker to speak at [[San Diego Community College District]] was upheld despite opposition from community groups with the organizers citing their belief in free speech. Walker dismissed the criticism as "a ploy to shut down my webpage blog: alicewalkersgarden.com."<ref>{{cite web |last1=ROBBINS |first1=GARY |title=Author Alice Walker's controversial remarks will not cost her a speaking engagement in San Diego |url=https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/education/story/2022-05-03/alice-walkers-jewish-speaking |work=San Diego Union Tribune |date=May 3, 2022 |access-date=31 March 2023}}</ref>

==Personal life==
In 1965, Walker met [[Melvyn R. Leventhal|Melvyn Rosenman Leventhal]], a Jewish civil rights lawyer. They were married on March 17, 1967, in New York City. Later that year, the couple relocated to [[Jackson, Mississippi]], becoming the first [[civil marriage|legally married]] [[interracial]] couple in Mississippi since [[miscegenation]] laws were introduced in the state.<ref name="entertainment.timesonline.co.uk">{{cite news|url=http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article3866798.ece |title=The day feminist icon Alice Walker resigned as my mother |newspaper=The Times |location=London |date=May 4, 2008 |author=Driscoll, Margarette |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080511201732/http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article3866798.ece |archive-date=May 11, 2008 }}</ref><ref name="democracy">{{cite news|title=Inner Light in a Time of Darkness: A Conversation with Author and Poet Alice Walker |work=[[Democracy Now!]] |date=November 17, 2006 |url=http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/11/17/1454228 |access-date=June 14, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070613182120/http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06%2F11%2F17%2F1454228 |archive-date=June 13, 2007 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The couple had a daughter, [[Rebecca Walker|Rebecca]], in 1969. Walker and her husband divorced in 1976.<ref>{{cite news |url= https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2007/may/26/familyandrelationships.family2 |title=Can I survive having a baby? Will I lose myself ...? |newspaper=The Guardian |date=May 26, 2007 |location =London |author=Krum, Sharon}}</ref>

In the late 1970s, Walker moved to [[northern California]]. In 1984, she and fellow writer [[Robert L. Allen]] co-founded Wild Tree Press, a feminist publishing company in [[Anderson Valley]], California.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://testaae.greenwood.com/doc_print.aspx?fileID=JBP&chapterID=JBP-3181&path=encyclopedias/greenwood|title=Black Book Publishers in the United States: A Historical Dictionary of the Presses, 1817–1990|publisher=Greenwood Press|location=Westport, CT|date=1991|website=The African American Experience|first=Donald Franklin|last= Joyce|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203010208/http://testaae.greenwood.com/doc_print.aspx?fileID=JBP&chapterID=JBP-3181&path=encyclopedias%2Fgreenwood|archive-date=December 3, 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref> Walker legally added "Tallulah Kate" to her name in 1994 to honor her mother, Minnie Tallulah Grant, and paternal grandmother, Tallulah.<ref name=":06"/> Minnie Tallulah Grant's grandmother, Tallulah, was [[Cherokee]].<ref name=":5" />

Walker has claimed that she was in a romantic relationship with singer-songwriter [[Tracy Chapman]] in the mid-1990s: "It was delicious and lovely and wonderful and I totally enjoyed it and I was completely in love with her but it was not anybody's business but ours."<ref name="Wajid">{{cite news |url= https://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/dec/15/gender.world |newspaper=The Guardian |date= December 15, 2006 |title= No retreat |access-date= May 26, 2013 |location =London |author=Wajid, Sara}}</ref> Chapman has not publicly commented on the existence of a relationship between herself and Walker and maintains a strict separation between her private and public life.<ref>{{Cite magazine|last=Pond|first=Steve|date=1988-09-22|title=Tracy Chapman: On Her Own Terms|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/tracy-chapman-on-her-own-terms-60993/|access-date=2021-01-25|magazine=Rolling Stone|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=2002-10-15|author=Aurélie M.|title=2002 - Tracy Chapman still introspective?|url=http://www.about-tracy-chapman.net/2002-tracy-chapman-still-introspective/|access-date=2021-01-25|website=About Tracy Chapman|language=en-US}}</ref>

Walker's [[spirituality]] has influenced some of her best-known novels, including ''[[The Color Purple]].''<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Lackey|first=Charlie|date=Spring 2002|title=Soul Talk: The New Spirituality of African American Women|journal=MultiCultural Review|volume=11|page=86|via=Women's Studies International}}</ref> She has written of her interest in [[Transcendental Meditation]].<ref>{{cite book |title= Circling Faith: Southern women on spirituality |author1=Reed, Wendy |author2=Horne, Jennifer |publisher=University of Alabama Press |year=2012 |page=185 |isbn=9780817317676}}</ref> Walker's exploration of religion in much of her writing draws on a literary tradition that includes writers like [[Zora Neale Hurston]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Freeman|first=Alma|date=Spring 1985|title=Zora Neale Hurston and Alice Walker: A Spiritual Kinship|journal=Sage|volume=103|pages=37–40|via=Literature Resource Center}}</ref>

Walker has never denied that there are some autobiographical dimensions to her stories. When "Advancing Luna—and Ida B. Wells" was first published in [[Ms. (magazine)|''Ms.'' magazine]], Walker included a disclaimer that "Luna and Freddie Pye are composite characters, and their names are made up. This is a fictionalized account suggested by a number of real events".<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Petry |first=Alice Hall |date=1989 |title=Alice Walker: The Achievement of the Short Fiction |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3195263 |journal=Modern Language Studies |volume=19 |issue=1 |pages=12–27 |doi=10.2307/3195263 |jstor=3195263 |issn=0047-7729|url-access=subscription }}</ref> John O' Brien's 1973 interview with Walker offers further details.<ref>{{Cite book |last=O'Brien |first=John |title=Interviews with Black Writers |publisher=Liveright |year=1973 |edition=1st |location=New York |pages=196 |language=English}}</ref>

== Teaching and Feminist Rights Movement ==
Aside from her civil rights activism, Walker would often educate others about the Black feminist movement through her teachings at several different higher education institutions. In the fall of 1972, Walker taught a course in Black Women's Writers at the [[University of Massachusetts Boston]].<ref>[https://www.smith.edu/libraries/libs/ssc/vof/transcripts/Smith.pdf "Voices of Feminism Oral History Project"]. [[Barbara Smith]] interviewed by [[Loretta Ross|Loretta L. Ross]], May 7–8, 2003, p. 50. Retrieved July 19, 2017</ref> as well as [[Wellesley College]] in 1973. Moreover, that same year, she also published her primary collection of short stories ''In Love and Trouble: Stories of Black Women,'' as well as ''Revolutionary Petunias and Other Poems'' which served as a second volume of her poetry.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Farell |first=Susan |date=2007 |title=Fight Vs. Flight: A Re-Evaluation of Dee in Alice Walker's "Everyday Use" |url= |journal=Studies in Short Fiction |volume=35 |issue=2 |pages=179–186 |publisher=Gale}}</ref> In addition, she also taught an American Women studies class at [[Brandeis University]] in Waltham. Aside from the schools in Massachusetts at which she taught at, she gave several lectures on the topics of African-American Women Studies at [[Yale University]] as well as [[University of California, Berkeley]]. Overall, Walker gave several lectures at a variety of different institutions throughout America which allowed her to spread the ideas of the Black feminist movement.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Smith |first=Felipe |date=1992 |title=Alice Walker's Redemptive Art |url= |journal=African American Review |volume=26 |issue=3 |pages=437–451|doi=10.2307/3041916 |jstor=3041916 }}</ref>

==Representation in other media==
''[[Beauty in Truth (film)|Beauty in Truth]]'' (2013) is a documentary film about Walker directed by [[Pratibha Parmar]]. ''Phalia (Portrait of Alice Walker)'' (1989) is a photograph by [[Maud Sulter]] from her ''Zabat'' series originally produced for the [[Rochdale Art Gallery]] in England.<ref>''The Art of Feminism'' by Lucinda Gosling, Hilary Robinson, Amy Tobin, Helena Reckitt, Xabier Arakistain, and Maria Balshaw (December 25, 2018), Chronicle Books LLC.</ref>

==Awards and honors==
{{anchor|Selected awards and honors}}
* [[MacDowell Colony]] Fellowships (1967 and 1974)
* [[Ingram Merrill Foundation]] Fellowship (1967)
* [[Candace Award]], Arts and Letters, [[National Coalition of 100 Black Women]] (1982)<ref name="page3">{{cite web |website=National Coalition of 100 Black Women |title=Candace Award Recipients 1982–1990|page= 3 |url=http://www.ncbw.org/programs/award3.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030314213306/http://www.ncbw.org/programs/award3.html |archive-date=March 14, 2003 }}</ref>
* [[Pulitzer Prize for Fiction]] (1983) for ''[[The Color Purple]]''<ref name="pulitzer">[http://www.pulitzer.org/bycat/Fiction "Fiction"]. ''Past winners and finalists by category''. The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved March 17, 2012.</ref>
* [[National Book Award for Fiction]] (1983) for ''The Color Purple''<ref name=nba1983/><ref group=lower-alpha name=paperback>From 1980 to 1983, there were dual hardcover and paperback awards of the [[National Book Award for Fiction]]. Walker won the award for hardcover fiction.</ref>
* [[O. Henry Award]] for "Kindred Spirits" (1985)
* [[Langston Hughes Medal]], (1988), [[City College of New York]]
* Honorary degree from the [[California Institute of the Arts]] (1995)
* [[American Humanist Association]] named her as "Humanist of the Year" (1997)
* [[Lillian Smith Book Award|Lillian Smith Award]] from the [[National Endowment for the Arts]]
* Rosenthal Award from the [[American Academy of Arts and Letters|National Institute of Arts & Letters]]
* [[Radcliffe Institute]] Fellowship, the Merrill Fellowship, and a [[Guggenheim Fellowship]]
* Front Page Award for Best Magazine Criticism from the Newswoman's Club of New York
* Induction into the [[Georgia Writers Hall of Fame]] (2001)<ref>{{cite encyclopedia| title =Alice Walker (b. 1944)| encyclopedia =New Georgia Encyclopedia| url =http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/arts-culture/alice-walker-b-1944#print|last=Whitted|first= Qiana|date=October 15, 2021}}</ref>
* Induction into the [[California Hall of Fame]] in [[The California Museum for History, Women, and the Arts]] (2006)
* Domestic Human Rights Award from [[Global Exchange]] (2007)
* The [[LennonOno Grant for Peace]] (2010)
* The [[Haydée Santamaría]] medal (2024)<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-02-01 |title=Hermanamiento, desde una honda raíz cultural |url=https://www.granma.cu/cultura/2024-02-01/hermanamiento-desde-una-honda-raiz-cultural-01-02-2024-00-02-24 |access-date=2024-02-02 |website=Granma.cu |language=es}}</ref>

==Selected works==

{{col-begin}}
{{col-2}}

===Novels and short story collections===
* ''[[The Third Life of Grange Copeland]]'' (1970)
* ''In Love and Trouble: Stories of Black Women'' (1973, includes "[[Everyday Use]]")
* ''[[Meridian (novel)|Meridian]]'' (1976)
* ''[[The Color Purple]]'' (1982)
* ''You Can't Keep a Good Woman Down: Stories'' (1982)
* ''To Hell With Dying'' (1988)
* ''[[The Temple of My Familiar]]'' (1989)
* ''Finding the Green Stone'' (1991)
* ''[[Possessing the Secret of Joy]]'' (1992)
* ''The Complete Stories'' (1994)
* ''By the Light of My Father's Smile'' (1998)
* ''The Way Forward Is with a Broken Heart'' (2000)
* ''Now Is the Time to Open Your Heart'' (2004)

===Poetry collections===
* ''Once'' (1968)
* ''Revolutionary Petunias and Other Poems'' (1973)
* ''Good Night, Willie Lee, I'll See You in the Morning'' (1979)
* ''Horses Make a Landscape Look More Beautiful'' (1985)
* ''Her Blue Body Everything We Know: Earthling Poems'' (1991)
* ''Absolute Trust in the Goodness of the Earth'' (2003)
* ''A Poem Traveled Down My Arm: Poems And Drawings'' (2003)
* ''Collected Poems'' (2005)
* ''Hard Times Require Furious Dancing: New Poems'' (2010)
* ''The World Will Follow Joy'' (2013)
* ''Taking the Arrow Out of the Heart'' (2018)

===Non-fiction books===
* ''[[In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens: Womanist Prose]]'' (1983)
* ''Living by the Word: Selected Writings, 1973–1987'' (1988)
* ''[[Warrior Marks]]: Female Genital Mutilation and the Sexual Blinding of Women'' (with Pratibha Parmar, 1993)
* ''The Same River Twice: Honoring the Difficult'' (1996)
* ''Anything We Love Can Be Saved: A Writer's Activism'' (1997)
* ''Sent By Earth: A Message from the Grandmother Spirit, After the Bombing of the World Trade Center and Pentagon'' (2001)
* ''We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For: Inner Light in a Time of Darkness'' (2006)
* ''Pema Chödrön and Alice Walker in Conversation: On the Meaning of Suffering and the Mystery of Joy'' (2005)
* ''Overcoming Speechlessness: A Poet Encounters the Horror in Rwanda, Eastern Congo, and Palestine/Israel'' (2010)
* ''The Chicken Chronicles: Sitting with the Angels Who Have Returned with My Memories: Glorious, Rufus, Gertrude Stein, Splendor, Hortensia, Agnes of God, the Gladyses, & Babe, A Memoir'' (2011)
* ''The Cushion in the Road: Meditation and Wandering as the Whole World Awakens to Being in Harm's Way'' (2013)

===Essays===
* "Beauty: When the Other Dancer is the Self" (1983)

{{col-end}}

==See also==
* [[List of animal rights advocates]]

==References==
===Notes===
{{reflist|group=lower-alpha}}

===Citations===
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book |author=White, Evelyn C. |author-link=Evelyn C. White|year=2005 |title=Alice Walker: A Life|publisher=[[W. W. Norton & Company]] |isbn=978-0-393-32826-4}}
* {{cite book |author=Walker, Alice |author2=Parmar, Pratibha |year=1993 |title=Warrior Marks: Female Genital Mutilation and the Sexual Blinding of Women|publisher=Diane Books Publishing Company |isbn=978-0-7881-5581-9}}

==External links==
{{Sister project links|collapsible=true}}
* [http://alicewalkersgarden.com Alice Walker's official website]
* [http://video.pbs.org/video/2365171000/ ''Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151128020704/http://video.pbs.org/video/2365171000/ |date=November 28, 2015 }} – full video of biography film at PBS.org
* [http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/alice-walker Profile] at the [[Poetry Foundation]]
* [http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/486 Profile] at [[Poets.org]]
* {{C-SPAN|22751}}
* {{Charlie Rose view|2855}}
* {{Guardian topic}}
* {{NYTtopic|people/w/alice_walker}}
* [http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-998 ''New Georgia Encyclopedia''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130724123706/http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-998 |date=July 24, 2013 }}
* [http://rose.library.emory.edu/ Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library], Emory University: [http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/900jh Alice Walker papers, c. 1930–2014 (MSS 1061)]
* [http://rose.library.emory.edu/ Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library], Emory University: [http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/900g7 Letters to John Ferrone, 1976–1990 (MSS 1104)]
* [http://fscj.digital.flvc.org/islandora/object/fscj%3A1072#page/n36/mode/1up Kalliope, Archives, Wilson Sharon, 1984, Alice Walker, 6(2), 37–42]

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{{NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work – Poetry}}
{{NBA for Fiction 1975–1999}}
{{PulitzerPrize Fiction 1976–2000}}
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{{Alice Walker}}
{{The Color Purple}}
{{Female genital mutilation}}

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