Walker finds the practice of women addressing fellow women as "guys" dangerous and revealing. http://www.makers.com/alice-walker Growing up in the South prior to and during the Civil Rights Movement, had a major impact on the life and career of novelist, poet, and activist, Alice Walker. The eighth child of Georgia sharecroppers, Walker began writing, very privately, when she was eight years old. She went on to become valedictorian of her local school and to attend Spelman College and then Sarah Lawrence College on scholarships, graduating in 1965. Walker is a prolific writer of poetry, children's books, essays, short stories, and novels, most notably 1983's The Color Purple for which she won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction - the first African American woman to receive the award. The book also won the National Book Award, was made into Steven Spielberg's 1985 Oscar-nominated film, and was adapted for the stage, opening on Broadway in 2005, and capturing a Tony Award for best leading actress in a musical in 2006. Walker was active in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, and continues today to be an involved activist.