Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alice Walker says the art of journaling allows the journaler to watch themselves develop, identify their fears and discover what’s holding them back and keeping them silent.
Walker, who started journaling sometime between the ages of 17 or 18, says she was gifted her first journal by a friend at Spelman College ahead of a trip to the Soviet Union.
On Monday’s edition of “Closer Look,” Walker talked with program host Rose Scott about her new book, “Gathering Blossoms Under Fire: The Journals of Alice Walker 1965-2000.“ The book, which chronicles Walker’s life over five decades, was edited by the late critic and writer Valerie Boyd.
“I have never stopped journaling, I have tons of journals that have never been transcribed,” she said. “It’s a way to make sense of the world and our relationship with it and also assuming my position here as an elder in our community where we need to know certain things without a lot of garnish.“
During the conversation, Walker further explained that freedom is one of the biggest takeaways she wants readers to take away from her literary works.
