Maya Angelou

American poet and memoirist — author of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings — Civil Rights activist — Presidential Medal of Freedom — who created the modern African-American memoir and is the most quoted American poet.

Creates the modern African-American memoir — I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings establishes the form for memoir that addresses race, trauma, and survival with literary ambition; its account of childhood sexual abuse, racism, and self-discovery in the American South is the model for subsequent American memoirs dealing with race.