NEW YORK — Along with writing novels, stories, poems and essays, Alice Walker has been keeping a diary.

The author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning "The Color Purple" has a deal with Simon & Schuster imprint 37 Ink to publish a selection of her private chronicles in 2017. The book is called "Gathering Blossoms Under Fire" and will be edited by Valerie Boyd. Boyd wrote a biography of Zora Neale Hurston, one of Walker's literary idols.

A spokesman for 37 Ink told The Associated Press on Friday that the book will also feature new essays from Walker that look back on her life.

The 69-year-old Walker has been keeping a diary for half a century, filling dozens of notebooks that track her rise from poverty in Georgia to international fame.