UI honors poet Alexander By David Speer The Associated Press Margaret Walker Alexander knew she wanted to write books, but she took up teaching for the same reason as many other authors. ''I never intended from the beginning to be a teacher," Al¬ exander said. ''But I had to eat and my father said writing po¬ etry would never feed me.'' Alexander, 72, a poet, novelist and retired Jackson State Uni¬ versity English teacher who still lives in Jackson, Miss., was honored Saturday with a dis¬ tinguished alunmi achievement award from the University of Iowa. Alexander said she came to Iowa in 1939 ''absolutely pen¬ niless and determined to learn to write.'* She came back Saturday with 18 family members, including her four children and nine grandchildren, who took up three tables at the awards banquet. Even though she went on to teach at West Virginia State College, Livingstone College and Jackson State, Alexander always considered herself a writer. Her works include the 1966 novel
