We are bursting with pride to announce that Lucille Clifton has been awarded the Frost Medal from the Poetry Society of America. The below press release was provided by the PSA and details the award and the ceremony. Congratulations, Lucille!
New York, NY, January 20, 2010—As part of its Centennial Year, the Poetry Society of America will celebrate its 14 award winners at an event in their home, the National Arts Club. Poet Lucille Clifton will receive the PSA’s highest award, the Frost Medal, which honors “distinguished lifetime service to American poetry.” Previous winners of this award include John Ashbery, Gwendolyn Brooks, Wallace Stevens, Allen Ginsberg, and Adrienne Rich. Influential in the world of poetry for more than forty years, Lucille Clifton will deliver the Frost Lecture to end the ceremony. Admission is Free.
For information, directions, and a complete schedule contact Rob Casper, Programs Director at the Poetry Society of America, at 212.254.9628 or rob@poetrysociety.org
About the Winner:
Lucille Clifton’s first collection of poetry, Good Times (Random House, 1969), was listed by The New York Times as one of the year’s ten best books. Her collection, Blessing the Boats: New and Collected Poems 1988-2000 (BOA Editions), won the National Book Award for Poetry. She is the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, a grant from the Academy of American Poets, and an Emmy Award. In 1992, Clifton received the PSA’s Shelley Memorial Award, and in 2007 she won the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize. From 1999-2005, she served on the Board of Chancellors of the Academy of American Poets, and has served as a Visiting Professor at Columbia University and George Washington University. From 1979-1985, Clifton served as Poet Laureate for the state of Maryland, and, since 1991, has held the position of Distinguished Professor of Humanities at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. Her collections of poetry include An Ordinary Woman (University of Massachusetts Press, Amherst, 1980), Quilting: Poems 1987-1990 (BOA Editions, 1991), The Terrible Stories (1996), and Voices (2008).
About the Award and Society:
The Robert Frost Medal is given by the Poetry Society of America to honor “distinguished lifetime service to American poetry.” The first medal was presented in 1930 to Jessie Rittenhouse, and has been an annual award since 1984. In 1995, the addition of the Frost Lecture was included in the Annual Awards Ceremony, held in the National Arts Club. Previous recipients of the Frost Medal include Robert Frost, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Marianne Moore, Wallace Stevens, John Ashbery, Stanley Kunitz, and Richard Howard.
The Poetry Society of America, the nation’s oldest poetry organization, was founded in 1910 for the purpose of creating a public forum for the advancement, enjoyment, and understanding of poetry. Through a diverse array of programs, initiatives, contests, and awards, the PSA works to build a larger audience for poetry, to encourage a deeper appreciation of the art, and to place poetry at the crossroads of American life.
