Hello book
lovers! In celebration of Women’s History Month, I would like to present to you
author, educator, and social activist, bell hooks (birth name – Gloria Jean
Watkins). Her pen name was adopted from her maternal great-grandmother, Bell
Blair Hooks. She graduated from Stanford University (BA), University of Wisconsin-Madison
(MA), and University of California, Santa Cruz (PhD). 

Most of her work centered on
intersectionality of race, capitalism, and gender and addressed love, class,
sexuality, mass media, and feminism. Her work spans around 40 books, ranging
from essays, poetry, and children’s books. She published a number of scholarly
articles, appeared in documentary films and engaged in public lectures. 

In 1976, she began her academic career
teaching English and ethnic studies at several academic institutions before
joining Berea College in Berea, Kentucky in 2004. While there, she founded the
bell hooks Institute in 2014 along with professor Dr. M. Shadee Malaklou to
provide underrepresented students, especially black and brown, femme, queer,
and Appalachian individuals to develop their activism, Education and other work.
She was inducted into the Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame in 2018. 

Throughout her writing career, she won
several awards including the American Book Awards/Before Columbus Foundation
Award (1991), The Writer’s Award from the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fund
(1994), Happy to Be Nappy: NAACP Image nominee (2001), Homemade Love:
The Bank Street College Children’s Book of the Year (2002) and the most recent TIME
100 Women of the Year (2020). Although she is gone, she will definitely not
be forgotten for the trailblazer that she was (1952 – 2021). 

Writing Tip: I will focus on bell
hook’s writing of children’s books. When writing such books nothing beats including
affirmations and positive messages that resound with children so they can learn
to love themselves. Illustrations filled with colorful and lively images help
to draw the children into the stories and make reading a fun experience. 

Originally Published on https://vocalexpressions.blogspot.com

Deliah Lawrence Attorney, Author, Blogger, Workshop Facilitator

Deliah Lawrence is a Maryland-based attorney and award-winning author of two romantic suspense novels (Gotta Let It Go and Gotta Get It Back) set in Baltimore. She’s also a blogger and workshop facilitator who writes poetry and short stories.

When Deliah isn’t writing, you can find her reading a book, indulging in her addiction to investigation discovery shows; or painting her yet-to-be exhibited oil artworks of landscapes, portraits or whatever else comes to her creative mind. Constantly on the go, she is also a member of the Black Writers’ Guild of Maryland and Sisters in Crime.