Eugenia W. Collier is an African-American writer and critic best known for her 1969 short story Marigolds

Marigolds (short story)

"Marigolds" is a short story that is written by Eugenia Collier in 1969. She reports that she wrote the story during a time in which she was quite unhappy. She won the Gwendolyn Brooks Prize for Fiction for it, and now considers Marigolds her favorite piece of fiction...

, which won the Gwendolyn Brooks

Gwendolyn Brooks

Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks was an American poet. She was appointed Poet Laureate of Illinois in 1968 and Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1985.-Biography:...

 Prize for Fiction award. She was born in Baltimore

Baltimore

Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...

, Maryland

Maryland

Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...

, USA.

Collier's collection, "Breeder and Other Stories," was released in 1993. She has also published a play, "Ricky," based on her short story of the same name. Other texts that Collier has written or contributed to include "Impressions in Asphalt: Images of Urban America" (1999); "A Bridge to Saying It Well" (1770); "Sweet Potato Pie (1972); "Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes

James Mercer Langston Hughes was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist. He was one of the earliest innovators of the then-new literary art form jazz poetry. Hughes is best known for his work during the Harlem Renaissance...

: Black Genius" (1991); "Afro-American Writing: An Anthology of Prose and Poetry" (1992); and "Modern Black Poets: A Collection of Critical Essays" (1973). Her work has appeared in Negro Digest, Black World, TV Guide

TV Guide

TV Guide is a weekly American magazine with listings of TV shows.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews and crossword puzzles...

, Phylon, College Language Association Journal, and The New York Times

The New York Times

The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

.

Her short story

Short story

A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...

 "Marigolds" is one of the most widely-anthologized short stories in secondary school English textbooks. The story, which is set against the backdrop of the Great Depression

Great Depression

The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

, describes the moment that the 14-year old narrator, Lizabeth, comes of age. It is the moment she is first able to feel the pain of another human being, and Collier's narrative argues that innocence and compassion cannot exist in the same person.

The former English Chair at Morgan State University

Morgan State University

Morgan State University, formerly Centenary Biblical Institute , Morgan College and Morgan State College , is a historically black college in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Morgan is Maryland's designated public urban university and the largest HBCU in the state of Maryland...

, Collier has also taught at Coppin State College (now University),the University of Maryland

University of Maryland, College Park

The University of Maryland, College Park is a top-ranked public research university located in the city of College Park in Prince George's County, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C...

, Howard University

Howard University

Howard University is a federally chartered, non-profit, private, coeducational, nonsectarian, historically black university located in Washington, D.C., United States...

, Southern Illinois University

Southern Illinois University

Southern Illinois University is a state university system based in Carbondale, Illinois, in the Southern Illinois region of the state, with multiple campuses...

, and Atlanta University. She graduated magna cum laude from Howard University

Howard University

Howard University is a federally chartered, non-profit, private, coeducational, nonsectarian, historically black university located in Washington, D.C., United States...

 in 1948, and was awarded an M.A. from Columbia University

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

 two years later. In 1976, she earned a Ph.D. from the University of Maryland.

Since retiring in 1996, Collier continues to live in Baltimore

Baltimore

Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...

, and occasionally visits classes to discuss creative writing and her stories.

Collier has 3 sons, Phil, Bob, and Chuck, and 7 grandchildren, Robin, Eve, Eric, Phil, Michael, Samantha, and Natalie.