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2010 Black History Month: Lucille Clifton, Poet, Writer, Educator
“People wish to be poets more than they wish to write poetry, and that’s a mistake. One should wish to celebrate more than one wishes to be celebrated.”~Lucille Clifton
Lucille Clifton, (nee Sayles), acknowledged as one of the most accomplished women in the world of literature, died February 13, 2010.
Clifton, an artist known for her affable demeanor, common sense approach to poetry and writing, served as the Poet Laureate of the state of Maryland for six years from 1979 to 1985.
She was born and raised in upstate New York. Upon graduation from high school at age sixteen she received a scholarship to Howard University in Washington, D.C., where she was introduced to dramatist and poet Amiri Bakara, formerly known as LeRoi Jones and poet, Sterling Brown. However, Lucille returned to New York state to receive her undergraduate degree from Fredonia State Teachers College.
During her lifetime she held several teaching positions including in Baltimore, Maryland’s Coppin State College, from 1974 to 1979; she was professor of literature and creative writing at the University of California, Santa Cruz, from 1985 to 1989.
Lucille Clifton was also Distinguished Professor of Literature and Distinguished Professor of Humanities at St. Mary’s College, Maryland, from 1989 to 1991, and professor of creative writing at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, beginning in 1998;
The recipient of many prestigious literary awards Clifton is also known for her intelligent and practical sense of humor as exhibited in her poetry and her prose. An excerpt from her poem Admonitions:
“…children when they ask you why your mama so funny say she is a poet she don’t have no sense.”~Lucille Clifton
Clifton was married to Fred Clifton until the time of his passing in 1984. They met when Lucille was attending Fredonia State College, and at the time Fred Clifton, her future husband, was a professor of philosophy at the University of Buffalo. Together Lucille and Fred had six children.
Lucille Clifton was nominated three times for the Pulitzer Prize for poetry, once in 1980, 1987–the first poet to have two books competing in the finals for the Pulitzer, and again in 1991; additionally she received the Lannan Literary Award for poetry in 1997; the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize in 1997; the Los Angeles Times Poetry Award in 1997; the Lila Wallace/Reader’s Digest Award in 1999.
Clifton won the National Book Award for Blessing the Boats: New and Selected Poems, 1988-2000 (2000) as well as winning in 2007, the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize; the $100,000 prize honors a living U.S. poet whose “lifetime accomplishments warrant extraordinary recognition.”
She has been recognized with honorary degrees from Colby College, the University of Maryland, Towson State University, Washington College, and Albright College.
Lucille Clifton is rightfully celebrated for her work which demonstrates her sincere passion for the everyday things we often take for granted. As she so eloquently expressed:
“Poetry is a matter of life, not just a matter of language.”
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