Baldwin set a formidable example of self-discipline and artistic integrity.

(© Todd France/Corbis)īy her own account, the highlight of her college career was a fiction workshop taught by the esteemed novelist and civil rights activist James Baldwin. Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks at home in Brooklyn, New York, 2002. Holyoke College in Massachusetts as a science student, but soon rediscovered her love of poetry and fiction, and decided to major in English and German literature. Temporarily abandoning her dream, Parks entered Mt.

In high school, Suzan-Lori Parks dreamed of becoming a writer, but was discouraged by an English teacher who found fault with her spelling. Her mother later became an administrator at Syracuse University. Parks became a professor of education at the University of Vermont. Both of Suzan-Lori’s parents emphasized the importance of education. Suzan-Lori and her brother and sister attended local schools, where they soon became fluent in German. In 1974, her father was posted to Germany and the whole family moved with him. A lively, imaginative child, Parks was an avid reader of mythology and folklore, and amused herself writing songs and stories. The rhythms and similes of West Texas dialect made a lasting impression on Suzan-Lori Parks, whose work as a writer overflows with colorful dialogue, exploiting the rich resources of African American vernacular speech. While her father served overseas in Vietnam, the rest of the family lived in Odessa, Texas, near Suzan-Lori’s maternal grandmother. She went to school in six states, seldom spending more than a year in the same school. Her father was a career officer in the United States Army, so the family moved frequently while Suzan-Lori was growing up. Suzan-Lori Parks was born in Fort Knox, Kentucky.

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