Maya Angelou books

Anthologies

Collections

Maya Angelou’s Autobiography Reading Order

Maya’s World Reading Order

Non-Fiction

Picture Reading Order

Poetry for Young People Reading Order

Maya Angelou published across poetry, memoir, essays, children’s books, and cookbooks over a career that lasted more than four decades. Her seven-volume autobiography, beginning with I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), traces her life from childhood in Stamps, Arkansas, through her years as a performer, activist, and writer. The first volume became one of the most widely read American autobiographies and is still assigned in schools.

Her poetry collections include And Still I Rise (1978), Phenomenal Woman (1995), and On the Pulse of Morning, the poem she read at President Clinton’s 1993 inauguration. She also wrote essays (Wouldn’t Take Nothing for My Journey Now), children’s picture books (Life Doesn’t Frighten Me, the Maya’s World series), and cookbooks (Hallelujah! The Welcome Table). Angelou was involved in the Poetry for Young People series, which introduced classic poets like Whitman, Frost, and Dickinson to younger readers. She died in 2014 at age 86.