Maya Angelou

1928–2014

American poet, memoirist and civil rights activist whose autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings broke new ground for its candour about childhood trauma and racism in the American South. She read her poem “On the Pulse of Morning” at Bill Clinton’s 1993 presidential inauguration.

Timeline of Maya Angelou’s life

Works

• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969)
• Gather Together in My Name (1974)
• And Still I Rise (1978)
• The Heart of a Woman (1981)