Biography
Lucille Clifton was a celebrated poet, memoirist and children’s book author. Born in 1936 in DePew, New York, she grew up in Buffalo, and her work centred around African-American experience and urban life. Clifton’s first book of poems, Good Times (1969), was rated one of the best books of the year by the New York Times. One critic called her a “passionate, mercurial writer, by turns angry, prophetic, compassionate, shrewd, sensuous, vulnerable and funny.” Known for her spare, lean style, Clifton’s unadorned poems were often shorter than twenty lines. Among many honours, she won the prestigious National Book Award for Blessing the Boats:
New and Selected Poems, 1988-2000, and three of her poetry collections were nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. Clifton served as the state of Maryland’s poet laureate from 1974 until 1985, was elected Chancellor of the Academy of Poets in 1999 and was a Distinguished Professor of Humanities at St. Mary’s College of Maryland.