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Lucille Clifton (born June 27, 1936) is an American poet, writer, and educator from New York. Events 1358 - Republic of Dubrovnik is founded 1709 - Peter the Great defeats Charles XII of Sweden Year 1936 ( MCMXXXVI) was a Leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the A poet is a person who writes Poetry. Etymology From the Ancient greek: ποιέω, poieō: "I make or compose" A writer is anyone who creates a written work although the word usually designates those who write creatively or professionally as well as those who have written in many different forms New York ( is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous Common topics in her poetry include the celebration of her African American heritage, and feminist themes, with particular emphasis on the female body. African Americans or Black Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have origins in any of the black populations of Africa

Contents

Life

Lucille Clifton (born Thelma Lucille Sayles) was born June 27, 1936, and raised in Depew, New York. Depew is a Village in Erie County, New York, United States. The population was 16629 at the 2000 census Her high school career was completed at Fosdick-Masten Park High School. She attended Howard University from 1953 to 1955 and graduated from the State University of New York at Fredonia (near Buffalo) in 1955. Howard University is a private, Coeducational Nonsectarian University located in Washington D The State University of New York at Fredonia (also known as SUNY Fredonia or Fredonia State) is a four-year liberal arts college located in Fredonia New York In 1958 she married Fred James Clifton. She worked as a claims clerk in the New York State Division of Employment, Buffalo (1958-1960), and as literature assistant in the Office of Education in Washington, D.C. (1960-1971). Washington DC ( formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D Her first poetry collection Good Times was published in 1969, and listed by The New York Times as one of the year's 10 best books. From 1971 to 1974 she was poet-in-residence at Coppin State College in Baltimore. Coppin State University, is an Historically black college located in Baltimore, Maryland. From 1979-1985 she was Poet Laureate of the state of Maryland. A Poet Laureate is a Poet officially appointed by a government and is often expected to compose poems for State occasions and other government events [1] From 1982 to 1983 she was visiting writer at Columbia University School of the Arts and at George Washington University. The George Washington University ( GW or GWU) is a private coeducational university located in Washington D From 1985-1989, Clifton was a professor of literature and creative writing at the University of California, Santa Cruz. [2] Since 1991, she has been Distinguished Professor of Humanities at St. Mary's College of Maryland. St Mary's College of Maryland, established in 1840 is a public secular Liberal arts college located in St From 1995 to 1999, she was Visiting Professor at Columbia University.

Poetry and Prose

In 1969 Clifton's first book, a collection of poetry titled Good Times, was published; in that year it was listed by The New York Times as one of the year's 10 best books. In 1971, Clifton left her civil service position to become a writer in residence at Coppin State College, and during her tenure there she published her next two volumes of poetry Good News About the Earth (1972) and An Ordinary Woman (1974).

Clifton's later poetry collections include Next: New Poems (1987), Quilting: Poems 1987-1990 (1991), and The Terrible Stories (1996). Generations: A Memoir (1976) is a prose piece celebrating her origins, and Good Woman: Poems and a Memoir: 1969-1980 (1987) collects some of her previously published verse.

Clifton's many children's books, written expressly for an African-American audience in mind, include All Us Come Cross the Water (1973), My Friend Jacob (1980), and Three Wishes (1992). African Americans or Black Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have origins in any of the black populations of Africa She also wrote an award-winning series of books featuring events in the life of Everett Anderson, a young black boy. These include Some of the Days of Everett Anderson (1970) and Everett Anderson's Goodbye (1983). Her children's books now total over 20. Besides appearing in over 100 anthologies of poetry, she has come to popular attention through television appearances on the "Today Show", "Sunday Morning", with Charles Kuralt, "Nightline" and Bill Moyers' series, "The Power of the Word. "

Awards

She received a Creative Writing Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1970 and 1973, and a grant from the Academy of American Poets. The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA is a United States federally funded and donation assisted program that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence The Academy of American Poets is the preeminent organization in the United States dedicated to the art of Poetry. She has received the Charity Randall prize, the Jerome J. Shestack Prize from the American Poetry Review, and an Emmy Award. The American Poetry Review (APR is an American Poetry Magazine printed every other month and printed on tabloid-sized newsprint Her children's book, Everett Anderson’s Good-bye, won the 1984 Coretta Scott King Award. The Coretta Scott King Award is an annual award presented by the American Library Association. In 1988, she became the first author to have two books of poetry chosen as finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. The Pulitzer Prize, ˈpʊlɨtsɚ PULL-it-sər is an American award regarded as the highest national honor in Newspaper journalism, For 1991/1992, she was awarded the Shelley Memorial Award. The Shelley Memorial Award of more than $3500 given out by the Poetry Society of America was established by the will of the late Mary P She received the Lannan Literary Award for Poetry in 1996. The Lannan Literary Awards are a series of awards and literary fellowships given out in various fields by the Lannan Foundation Her volume, Blessing the Boats: New and Collected Poems 1988-2000 won the National Book Award for Poetry in 2000. The National Book Award for Poetry has been given since 1950 and is part of the National Book Awards, which are given annually for outstanding literary works by American citizens From 1999-2005, she served on the Board of Chancellors of the Academy of American Poets. The Academy of American Poets is the preeminent organization in the United States dedicated to the art of Poetry. In 2007, Clifton won the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize; the $100,000 prize honors a living U. The Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize is awarded annually by The Poetry Foundation; the Foundation also publishes ''Poetry''. S. poet whose "lifetime accomplishments warrant extraordinary recognition. "

Bibliography

Poetry

Nonfiction

References

  1. ^ "Maryland Poets Laureate," webpage of Maryland State Archives, retrieved May 27, 2007.
  2. ^ Maryland State Archives and Maryland Commission for Women. "Lucille Clifton, Maryland Women's Hall of Fame," webpage from the Maryland Women's Hall of Fame retrieved May 28, 2007.

External links

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