Author bell hooks, considered a leading figure of American feminist literature and one of the country’s most influential cultural critics, has died at 69, the Lexington Herald-Leader reports.

hooks, born Gloria Jean Watkins in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, was educated at Stanford University, the University of Wisconsin, and the University of California, Santa Cruz. She was an undergraduate at Stanford when she began work on her first nonfiction book, Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism, which was published in 1981.

Several books would follow, including Art on My Mind, Wounds of Passion, and All About Love. She was also the author of several children’s books, such as Happy To Be Nappyand Grump Groan Growl, and was the founder of the bell hooks Institute at Kentucky’s Berea College.

In a statement issued by publisher William Morrow, hooks’ family remembered her life and career.

“The family is honored that Gloria received numerous awards, honors, and international fame for her works as poet, author, feminist, professor, cultural critic, and social activist,” her family said. “We are proud to just call her sister, friend, confidant, and influencer.”

Her admirers paid tribute to her on social media. Journalist Hannah Giorgis wrote on Twitter, “it is not hyperbole to say bell hooks saved me and so many of the women i’ve been blessed to move through this life alongside. what an incalculable loss, my goodness.”

And author Clint Smith tweeted, “bell hooks was an extraordinary writer, thinker, and scholar who gave us new language with which to make sense of the world around us. Her work was imbued with a deep commitment to truth-telling, but also with a profound sense of care and love for community. She was a treasure.”

Michael Schaub is a Texas-based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.