Maya Angelou was a world-renowned author, poet, singer, autobiographer, memoirist, and civil rights activist. She is best known for her seven brilliant autobiographies. Even after facing personal and black community struggles, she stood strong and became a spokesperson for black people. Her journey was very inspiring and motivating.
Here are some of the best pieces of Maya Angelou’s writing.
1.I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings
This was the first book that Maya Angelou wrote. This book got much recognition and in the next few months, it became globally acclaimed. In this book, she narrates her teenage story and brings up the black American women topic during the civil rights movement.
2.The Heart Of A Woman
This is a memoir Maya wrote with details about the woman’s journey as a young girl, wife, and mother. She also mentioned the civil rights movement, where she reviewed the racism and struggles faced by the black community.
3.Letter To My Daughter
This book is the most inspirational book Maya wrote for women. She saw women as mother figures and shared her wisdom with them. Even though she didn’t have a daughter, she shared a way of living and parenthood with women.
4.Gather Together In My Name
This was the second book of Maya’s journey. The theme of the book was focused on family, racism, identity, motherhood, and education. The Gather Together book received many positive responses from the audience.
5.Life Doesn’t Frighten Me
Maya Angelou encourages the readers with her writing ‘Life doesn’t frighten me’. Here, she suggests overcoming the fear. It is a collection of poems which is written from a child’s perspective. Maya depicted her journey as a child. She shared how she overcame the fear and moved on.
6.And Still I Rise
She wrote this book during her peak career. This book is a collection of 32 short poems which is separated into three parts. In this book, she put more emphasis on her race and gender. She further depicts the strength and resilience of her community.
7.Just Give Me A Cool Drink Of Water ‘fore I Diiie
This amazing piece of writing is from the first collection of poems Maya Angelou wrote. It contains 38 poems divided into two sections. The first part focuses on love and destruction for her people. While the other part focused on the struggle and survival of her people in a white-dominated society.
8.Wouldn’t Take Nothing For My Journey Now
It was published in 1993, and soon it gained high ratings and reviews from the audience. This book is a collection of short essays and two poems that Maya wrote. Poems are on topics of fashion, pregnancy, death, and racism. While essays are a type of inspirational autobiography.
9.Mom & Me & Mom
Published in 2013, in which Maya gave an overview of her life and revisited many of her stories, poems, and collections. The book was divided into two parts. In the first half, she narrated her early life story, and in the next, she reviewed her failed marriage, motherhood, ups & downs of her career.
10.A Song Flung Up To Heaven
This is the sixth volume of her autobiography. This masterpiece of Maya shows her struggle in some of the most important events of the civil rights movement period.
11.Rainbow In The Cloud: The Wisdom And Spirit
This book gives a rewarding and resonating view of culture and creativity in a person. It symbolises that if you have courage, you will shine brightly from within and nothing can dim your brightness. It also suggests readers be the rainbow in someone’s cloud with their wisdom and good spirit.
12.Amazing Peace
This is a very beautiful and deep poem where Maya inspires the readers to embrace peace in their lives and reminds the readers that Christmas lights up the love and hope in the world. She further elaborates peace is not the absence of war, but the harmony, comfort and courtesies from within.
13.Even The Stars Look Lonesome
In this book, Maya wrote 20 short essays that covered topics of Africa, violence, gender, independence, etc. She shares her personal experience and reviews Oprah’s profile. Moreover, she mentions the negative sides of fame, which teaches a memorable lesson.
14.I Shall Not Be Moved
Maya tries to encourage young people to try hard and never give up on things. She suggests facing struggles and hard work to improve moral stance. Maya further shares the experience of humans, love and relations.
15.All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes
It is the 5th book of Maya’s autobiography series. In this book, Maya wonders what if there were no injustices done in the world on the basis of gender and colour. This poem is considered to be a perceptive exploration of Maya based on the history of African Americans.
16.Making Magic In The World
In this, Maya narrates her personal experiences of such a difficult life. She explains her journey which includes her enormous love for Africa. She shares the memories and mentions her mentors and teachers who inspired her to bring change in the world. Making magic in the world comes as an audio cassette which can be listened to easily.
17.A Brave And Startling Truth
This poem was written by Maya Angelou on the occasion of the 50th United Nations Day. This encouraging poem describes the belief of Maya that humankind will make the world a better place and will one day arrive at the ultimate level. She further says this will happen when humans will realise that they are the true wonder of the world.
18.Shaker, Why Don’t You Sing?
This is the 4th volume of the poetry that Maya wrote. She dedicated this poem to her son and grandson. It includes 28 poems based on the theme of survival maintenance, even after facing the pain of lost love, war defeat, and failure of her dreams.
Conclusion
Hence, these are some of the best books of Maya Angelou. With her powerful writing ability, she published more than 30 books, which are globally recognized.
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