LUCILLE CLIFTON

 BIOGRAPHY

Lucille Clifton, whose real name was Thelma Lucille Sayles, was an American poet who wrote about family life, race, and gender. She was born on June 27, 1936, in Depew, New York, and died on February 13, 2010, in Baltimore, Maryland.

    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. She was born into a slave family. Three years later, she married Fred James Clifton, and her first book, Good Times, a collection of poems, was released in 1969.

    Reed presented several of Clifton's poetry to Langston Hughes in 1966, and Hughes included them in his collection The Poetry of the Negro. The Cliftons relocated to Baltimore, Maryland in 1967.Good Times, her debut poetry collection, was released in 1969 and was named one of The New York Times' ten finest books of the year. 

    Clifton was poet-in-residence at Coppin State College in Baltimore from 1971 to 1974. She served as Maryland's Poet Laureate from 1979 to 1985. She was a visiting writer at Columbia University School of the Arts and George Washington University from 1982 to 1983. Her spouse died of cancer in 1984. Clifton was a professor of literature and religion from 1985 until 1989.