'I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings' is the autobiography of:

"I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" (1969) is the first volume of the autobiography of Maya Angelou, the American poet, writer and civil rights activist.

About the book:

It describes Angelou's childhood and early youth, from the age of 3 to 16, mainly in Stamps, Arkansas, and in St. Louis and San Francisco, during the 1930s and 1940s.

It deals with racism, identity, trauma and the power of literature. After a traumatic experience in childhood, she stopped speaking for several years and found strength through reading and the support of a teacher.

It ends with the birth of her son.

The title comes from the poem "Sympathy" by Paul Laurence Dunbar.

It became one of the first autobiographies by an African-American woman to be widely read by the general public, and it was nominated for the National Book Award.

About Maya Angelou (1928-2014):

• She wrote seven volumes of autobiography, many collections of poetry and essays.
• Her famous poems include "Still I Rise" and "Phenomenal Woman".
• She recited her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" at the inauguration of US President Bill Clinton in 1993.
• She worked with civil rights leaders Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X.
• She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011.

Other famous African-American women writers:

• Toni Morrison: "Beloved" (Pulitzer Prize, 1988); the first African-American woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature (1993).
• Alice Walker: "The Color Purple" (Pulitzer Prize, 1983).
• Zora Neale Hurston: "Their Eyes Were Watching God".

Why not the other options?

• ✗Toni Morrison wrote "Beloved" and won the Nobel Prize in 1993.
• ✗Alice Walker wrote "The Color Purple".
• ✗Harper Lee wrote "To Kill a Mockingbird".