Former Maryland Poet Laureate dies at 73
Former Maryland Poet Laureate (1979-1985) and Columbia resident, Lucille Clifton, 73, died Saturday at Johns Hopkins, after a long battle with cancer and other illnesses.
Her many honors include two Pulitzer Prize nominations, an Emmy Award from the American Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, a Lannan Literary Award, two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Shelley Memorial Award, the YM-YWHA Poetry Center Discovery Award, a National Book Award in 2001 for “Blessing the Boats: New and Selected Poems, 1988-2000,” and the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize in 2007, one of the most prestigious awards that can be won by an American Poet. She was the first African-American woman to win this award.
She was a Distinguished Professor of Humanities at St. Mary's College of Maryland. Ms. Clifton published 11 poetry collections and 20 children’s books. Her work is widely anthologized.
Click here for the full Baltimore Sun story.
Click here to read the Press Release from St. Mary's College of Maryland.
Click here to listen to a reading of “Blessing the Boats” and other poems.
