Alice Walker is an American author and activist. She has written many novels, short stories, and poems. Her best known works include The Color Purple and Meridian. Walker is also an outspoken advocate for human rights and environmental justice. In her writing, she often addresses issues of race, gender, and class. Walker was born in 1944 in Eatonton, Georgia. She attended Spelman College and then Sarah Lawrence College. After college, she moved to New York City to pursue a career in writing. Walker's first novel, The Third Life of Grange Copeland, was published in 1970. Her second novel, Meridian, was published in 1976. The Color Purple was published in 1982 and won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. In 1983, Walker wrote The Temple of My Familiar, a novel about the lives of several generations of African Americans. In 1992, Walker published Possessing the Secret of Joy, a novel about female genital mutilation. In 2003, she wrote The Way Forward Is with a Broken Heart, a collection of essays about her personal life and experiences. Walker continues to write and publish new work. She is also active in social and political causes.