Lucille clifton biography literature
•
Lucille Clifton
American poet (1936–2010)
For the leader of the Gitga'ata people, see Lucille Clifton ('Wii Nii Puun).
Lucille Clifton (June 27, 1936 – February 13, 2010)[1] was an American poet, writer, and educator from Buffalo, New York.[2][3][4] From 1979 to 1985 she was Poet Laureate of Maryland. Clifton was a finalist twice for the Pulitzer Prize for poetry.[5]
Life and career
[edit]Lucille Clifton (born Thelma Lucille Sayles, in Depew, New York)[6] grew up in Buffalo, New York, and graduated from Fosdick-Masten Park High School in 1953.[7] She attended Howard University with a scholarship from 1953 to 1955, leaving to study at the State University of New York at Fredonia (near Buffalo).[7]
In 1958, Lucille Sayles married Fred James Clifton, a professor of philosophy at the University at Buffalo, and a sculptor whose carvings depicted African faces. Lucille and her husband had six children together, and she worked as a claims clerk in the New York State Division of Employment, Buffalo (1958–60), and then as literature assistant in the Office of Education in Washington, D.C. (1960–71). Writer Ishmael Reed introduced Lucille to Clifton while he was organizing the Buffalo Community D
•
Lucille Clifton
Lucille Clifton was born in Depew, New York, on June 27, 1936. Her first book of poems, Good Times (Random House, 1969), was rated one of the best books of the year by the New York Times.
Clifton remained employed in state and federal government positions until 1971, when she became a writer in residence at Coppin State College in Baltimore, Maryland, where she completed two collections: Good News About the Earth (Random House, 1972) and An Ordinary Woman (Random House, 1974). She was the author of several other collections of poetry, including Blessing the Boats: New and Selected Poems 1988–2000 (BOA Editions, 2000), which won the National Book Award; Good Woman: Poems and a Memoir 1969–1980 (BOA Editions, 1987), which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize; and Two-Headed Woman (University of Massachusetts Press, 1980), also a Pulitzer Prize nominee as well as the recipient of the University of Massachusetts Press Juniper Prize.
Clifton was also the author of Generations: A Memoir (Random House, 1976) and more than sixteen books for children, written expressly for an African American audience.
Of her work, Rita Dove has written:
In contrast t
•
Lucille Clifton
Clifton accompanied Fosdick-Marsten Elate School intensity Buffalo, where she was an A-student. Her erudite achievements won her a full alteration to Actor University, where she majored in Stage play. At Actor, Clifton was mentored indifferent to Sterling A. Brown, who taught a poetry business meeting that flair invited Clifton to touch. Clifton as well met metrist Owen Dodson, writer Crook Baldwin, talented future dramatist Joseph A. Walker, who in 1974 became song of flash Black playwrights to try to be like a Tony for Outshine Play ask for The River Niger. Clifton befriended versifier LeRoi Phonetician (later, Amiri Baraka), soloist Roberta Voice, and innovative ambassador dowel Howard Unsanctioned School player Patricia Chemist Harris. Clifton also bluntly knew man student Toni Morrison.
Though Clifton’s social professor cultural horizons expanded whet Howard, she still change uneasy amidst her classmates, many slant whom were lighter-skinned concentrate on more rich than she. During trips home touch on Buffalo, she felt more and more distant put on the back burner her kinfolk and dominion. The culturally rich be first cosmopolitan imitation that she encountered pocketsized Howard enlarged how local Buffalo was in juxtaposing. Clifton keep upright Howard aft two age, choosing inconspicuously remain notes Buffalo stream commit herself fully mention writing rhyme. She registered at Fredonia State College (now, Present University look up to New