Eugenia Collier

Eugenia Collier obtained her B.A. from Howard University in 1948, then her M.A. from Columbia University two years later, and finally her Ph.D. from the University of Maryland in 1976. After obtaining her master’s degree, she worked for five years as a caseworker for the Baltimore Department of Public Welfare. Then she found the calling to which she would devote most her life: education. She joined the faculty at Morgan State University in 1955 as an English instructor, and she lectured there and at other universities, including the University of Maryland and Howard University, until she retired in 1996. In 1969 Collier published “Marigolds,” which won the Gwendolyn Brooks Prize for Fiction and continues to be widely read and anthologized. She’s also published numerous scholarly and critical articles, as well as personal essays.