Bell hooks, a renowned feminist author and critic, has died at the age of 69, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported.
According to a press release from her niece Ebony Motely, hooks had been ill and was surrounded by family and loved ones when she died.
Hooks was born as Gloria Jean Watkins in Hopkinsville, Ky., in 1952.
After attending segregated schools during her childhood, Watkins graduated from Stanford University and earned her master’s degree in English and a doctorate in literature from the universities of Wisconsin and California at Santa Cruz, according to the Herald-Leader.
Hooks adopted her great-grandmother’s name as her pen name in lowercase letters, saying in a prior interview she choose the name in order to emphasize the “substance of books, not who I am.”
In 1981, hooks published her first book, called “Ain’t I a Woman? Black Women and Feminism.” She went on to author more than 40 books and essays that range from topics including feminism, racism, culture, politics, gender roles, love and spirituality.
She returned back to her native Kentucky in 2004 to teach classes at Berea College, and six years later the school opened the “bell hooks Institute,” housing her collection of contemporary African-American art, personal artifacts, and copies of her books published in various languages.
Hooks’s institute has attracted a plethora of visitors including actress Emma Watson, philosopher Cornel West and women’s rights activist Gloria Steinem, the Herald-Leader reported.
In an interview, hooks said she wants her work to be known as “healing.”
“I want my work to be about healing,” she said. “I am a fortunate writer because every day of my life practically I get a letter, a phone call from someone who tells me how my work has transformed their life.”
A celebration of hooks’s life will be announced at a later time, the Herald-Leader noted.