Maya Angelou was an American POET, memoirist, and civil rights activist. She is best known for her autobiographical works, such as her 1969 memoir, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, which made her the first African-American woman to write a best-selling memoir. The crossword solutions for the term ANGELOU, MAYA are RISE (4 letters), POET (4 letters), POEM (4 letters), and POEMS (5 letters). These words all refer to Angelou's work as a POET, with RISE referring to her RISE to fame as a POET, POET referring to her profession as a POET, POEM referring to her individual works of poetry, and POEMS referring to her collection of poems.