Although born in St. Louis, Angelou spent much of her childhood in the care of her paternal grandmother in rural Stamps, Arkansas. Raped at the age of eight by her mother's boyfriend, she went through an extended period of muteness. This early life is the focus of Angelou's first autobiographical work, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1970). Subsequent volumes of autobiography include Gather Together in My Name (1974), Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas (1976), The Heart of a Woman (1981), All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes (1986), and A Song Flung Up to Heaven (2002).

In 1940 Angelou moved with her mother to San Francisco and worked intermittently as a cocktail waitress, a prostitute and madam, a cook, and a dancer. It was as a dancer that she assumed her professional name. Moving to New York City in the late 1950s, Angelou found encouragement for her literary talents at the Harlem Writers' Guild. About the same time, Angelou landed a featured role in a State Department-sponsored production of George Gershwin's opera Porgy and Bess; with this troupe she toured 22 countries in Europe and Africa. She also studied dance with Martha Graham (Graham, Martha) and Pearl Primus (Primus, Pearl). In 1961 she performed in Jean Genet's The Blacks. That same year, she was persuaded by a South African dissident to whom she was briefly married to move to Cairo, Egypt, where she worked for the Arab Observer. She later moved to Ghana and worked on The African Review.

Angelou's poetry, collected in such volumes as Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie (1971), And Still I Rise (1978), Now Sheba Sings the Song (1987), and I Shall Not Be Moved (1990), draws heavily on her personal history but employs the points of view of various personae. She also wrote a book of meditations, Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now (1993), and children's books that include My Painted House, My Friendly Chicken and Me (1994), Life Doesn't Frighten Me (1998), and the Maya's World series, which began publication in 2004 and featured stories of children from various parts of the world.

In 1981 Angelou became a professor of American studies at Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, N.C. Among numerous other honours was her invitation to compose and deliver a poem for the inauguration of President Bill Clinton (Clinton, Bill) in 1993.