Lucille Clifton, original name Thelma Lucille Sayles, (born June 27, 1936, Depew, New York, U.S. died February 13, 2010, Baltimore, Maryland), American poet whose works examine family life, racism, and gender. Born of a family that was descended from slaves, she attended Howard University from 1953 to 1955 and graduated from Fredonia State Teachers College (now State University of New York College at Fredonia) in 1955. Three years later she married Fred James Clifton, and in 1969 her first book, a collection of poetry titled Good Times, was published. Clifton worked in state and federal government positions until 1971, when she
Lucille Clifton: A Life in Poetry
Author:
Lucille Clifton
In 2012,
The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton (1965-2010) was published by BOA Editions, Ltd. This book presents a backward glance over the career of the once-Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and renowned educator Lucille Clifton. It is a poetic testimony to both poetry of all styles and poets across the globe. Clifton has firmly planted herself alongside other greats of the late-twentieth and early-twenty-first centuries.
The volume presents all the poems Clifton published in book form during her life plus previously unpublished and uncollected poems. The foreword is written by Toni Morrison, who describes Clifton’s poetry as “moving declarations of racial pride, courage, steadfastness…they are eloquent elegies for the vulnerable and prematurely dead. She sifts the history of African Americans for honor.” Clifton’s poetry is phenomenally varied and simultaneously of the moment – fresh and forwar