World Literary Awards

← Back to Home

Lucille Clifton

ルシール・クリフトン

Rushīru Kurifuton

Profile

Gender
Female
Born
1936-06-27 （Depew, New York, US）
Died
2010-02-13 （Baltimore, Maryland, US） age 73
Nationality
United States
Languages
English
Residence History
Depew / Buffalo area, New York, US → Washington, D.C., US → Baltimore, Maryland, US → Santa Cruz, California, US

Career

Occupations
Poet, Writer, Educator
Active Years
1960-2010
Affiliations
Coppin State College (poet-in-residence), Columbia University (visiting writer / visiting professor), George Washington University (visiting writer), University of California, Santa Cruz (professor), St. Mary's College of Maryland (Distinguished Professor of Humanities), Academy of American Poets (Board of Chancellors)
Memberships
Academy of American Poets (Board member)
Influenced By
Langston Hughes, Ishmael Reed, Emily Dickinson (stylistic comparisons)
Influenced
Rita Dove, Natasha Trethewey, younger African American poets

Education

Fosdick-Masten Park High School
Period: 〜1953
Year of Graduation: 1953
Country: United States
High school graduate
Howard University
Period: 1953–1955（奨学金で在籍、卒業証明は不明）
Country: United States
Attended 1953–1955 on scholarship; degree status unclear
State University of New York at Fredonia
Country: United States
Transferred from Howard University; attendance recorded

Awards

National Book Award (Poetry)
2000
Work: Blessing the Boats: New and Collected Poems 1988–2000
Category: 詩
Organization: National Book Foundation
Result: 受賞
Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize
2007
Organization: Poetry Foundation (Ruth Lilly Fund)
Result: 受賞
Robert Frost Medal
2010
Organization: Poetry Society of America
Result: 受賞
Lannan Literary Award for Poetry
1996
Organization: Lannan Foundation
Result: 受賞
Coretta Scott King Award
1984
Work: Everett Anderson's Goodbye
Category: 児童書
Organization: American Library Association (Coretta Scott King Award)
Result: 受賞
Shelley Memorial Award
1992
Organization: Poetry Society of America
Result: 受賞
National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship
1970
Organization: National Endowment for the Arts
Result: 助成
National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship
1973
Organization: National Endowment for the Arts
Result: 助成
Pulitzer Prize (Poetry)
1988
Work: Good Woman: Poems and a Memoir (1969–1980) / Next: New Poems
Category: 詩
Organization: Pulitzer Prize Board
Result: ファイナリスト（同年に詩集2冊がファイナリスト）

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Good Times

1969 Poetry

Her first poetry collection, reflecting family life and everyday observations, inspired by her six young children.

familyeveryday lifemotherhood

Two-Headed Woman

1980 Poetry

Collection featuring poems such as 'homage to my hips', celebrating black female body, power, and pride.

embodimentcelebration of black womanhoodmythmaking

Quilting: Poems 1987–1990

1991 Poetry

Uses the quilt as an extended metaphor for life; poems are arranged like stitched stories.

memoryheritagecommunity

The Book of Light

1993 Poetry

Collection engaging with social justice and human rights; contains politically charged poems.

social justicehuman rightspolitical critique

Blessing the Boats: New and Collected Poems 1988–2000

2000 Poetry (Collected)

A collected volume combining earlier work and new poems; addresses breast cancer, mythology, religion, and the legacy of slavery.

illness and survivalmythhistorical legacy

Voices

2008 Poetry

Late collection featuring short poems on daily life, memory, and personal loss.

lossmemoryeveryday life

Bibliography

  • Good Times (1969)
  • Good News About the Earth (1972)
  • An Ordinary Woman (1974)
  • Two-Headed Woman (1980)
  • Good Woman: Poems and a Memoir: 1969–1980 (1987)
  • Next: New Poems (1987)
  • Ten Oxherding Pictures (1988)
  • Quilting: Poems 1987–1990 (1991)
  • The Book of Light (1993)
  • The Terrible Stories (1996)
  • Blessing the Boats: New and Collected Poems 1988–2000 (2000)
  • Mercy (2004)
  • Voices (2008)
  • The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton (2012, collected edition)
  • Generations: A Memoir (1976)
  • Numerous children's books (including the Everett Anderson series)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
short lines and concise dictionminimal capitalization and punctuation, using white spacefocus on the body as a site for inner experience
Recurring Motifs
the body (hands, hair, hips)family and motherhoodblack identitymythmaking and heritage

Health

  • Polydactyly (extra fingers, amputated in childhood)
    幼少期
    The 'ghost fingers' motif entered her poetry and other writings.
  • Gout
    晩年
    Reported to have caused some difficulty walking in later years.
  • Breast cancer (history of)
    1990年代以降（作品に反映）
    Her fight with cancer is reflected in 'Blessing the Boats' and other poems, informing themes of survival and anger.

Legacy

A poet who, with short lines and spare diction, depicted the bodies and lives of black women and left a significant mark on contemporary American poetry. She received major awards and recognition and contributed to poetry education and children's literature.

Museums

  • The Clifton House (preservation / restoration project) Near Baltimore, Maryland, US

Academic Societies

  • Academy of American Poets

Archives

  • Library of Congress (related holdings)
  • BOA Editions (publisher archives / holdings)

In Popular Culture

  • Plaque outside the New York Public Library quotes her poetry
  • Widely used in schools and workshops as material for poetry education

Quotes

  • “after the cancer i was so grateful / to be alive. i am alive and furious. / Blessed be even this?”
    Source: From 'dialysis' in Blessing the Boats (2000) (2000)

Trivia

  • Her family's polydactyly and the surgical removal of her extra fingers in childhood became a motif in her work.
  • In 1988 she was the first author to have two books of poetry named finalists in the same year for the Pulitzer Prize.
  • Served as Poet Laureate of Maryland from 1979 to 1985.