Gloria naylor + biography

American novelist (–)

Gloria Naylor (January 25, – September 28, ) was an American novelist, known for novels including The Women of Brewster Place (), Linden Hills () and Mama Day ().

Early life and education

Naylor was born in New York on January 25, , the oldest child of Roosevelt Naylor and Alberta McAlpin.

The Naylors, who had been sharecroppers in Robinsonville, Mississippi, had migrated to Harlem to escape life in the segregated South and seek new opportunities in New York City.^[1] Her father became a transit worker; her mother, a telephone operator.

Even though Naylor's mother had little education, she loved to read, and encouraged her daughter to read and keep a journal.^[2] Before her teen years, Gloria began writing prodigiously, filling many notebooks with observations, poems, and short stories.^[3]

In , Naylor's family moved to Queens and her mother joined the Jehovah's Witnesses.

An outstanding student who re