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So many writers have shaped my own sensibility and confidence as a writer but none more poignantly than Maya Angelou herself. Not only did she use the painful existence of her childhood to pen award-winning work, but her entire life and career was a testament to helping people of all backgrounds and experiences to find their voices beyond pain through the artful expression of their souls. Her reach went far beyond books; she was a multi-faceted artist, dancer, speaker, professor, educator, community activist, and this list goes on. She ultimately lived, taught and modeled what she wrote about and thereby became the modern day heroine of many. I admired her in life, still seek to emulate her beyond her recent death, and hope I can find the stuff of substance to make a mark on the lives of people who have been in bondage to and seeking deliverance from a broken past.

Maya Angelou was one of the first author and poet that drew me into reading. As a child I was a loner and with reading I could escape into a world of imagination through reading. I also fell in love with reading and writing poetry. There are a few that inspired me such as Nikki Giovanni, Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, Steven King just to name a few. I have always read to my children when they were little to give them the same experiences that reading has brought to me.

The very first book that I recall reading and left a deep impression on my mind was Maya Angelou' s I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings. I still have that book. The legacy that she has left on this world will live on forever. R.I.P. Maya Angelou!