Alice (Malsenior) Walker, (born Feb. 9, 1944, Eatonton, Ga., U.S.), U.S. writer. After attending Spelman College and Sarah Lawrence College, Walker moved to Mississippi and became involved with the civil rights movement. She also began teaching and publishing short stories and essays. Her works are noted for their insightful treatment of African American culture. Her third and most popular novel, The Color Purple (1982, Pulitzer Prize; film 1985), depicts a Black woman’s struggle for racial and sexual equality. Walker’s later novels include The Temple of My Familiar (1989), Possessing the Secret of Joy (1992), and Now Is the Time to Open Your Heart (2005). She has also written essays, some collected in In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens: Womanist Prose (1983) and The Cushion in the Road (2013), among others; several books of poetry; short stories; children’s books; and the memoir The Chicken Chronicles (2011). Walker has criticized Israel’s policies toward Palestinians, and she has been accused of anti-Semitism for supporting the work of conspiracy theorist and Holocaust denier David Icke.
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