LUCILLE CLIFTON

CLIFTON--Lucille, June 27, 1936 - February 13, 2010. The Poetry Society of America mourns the loss of the poet Lucille Clifton, selected to receive the 2010 Frost Medal, the highest honor of the organization in its Centennial year, given to an individual for "lifetime achievement in American poetry." Lucille Clifton was also awarded the Poetry Society's Shelley Memorial Award in 1991, and the Poetry Society--in tandem with Cave Canem, the Hunter College MFA Program in Creative Writing, HoPoLitSo of Maryland, BOA Editions, and St. Mary's College--paid tribute to her in 2004 at a splendid and joyful ceremony featuring Elizabeth Alexander, Robert Hass, Brenda Hillman, Galway Kinnell, Toni Morrison, Walter Mosley, Sonia Sanchez, Kevin Young, and many other distinguished poets and writers. The PSA intends to honor her as planned on April 1, 2010, at 7pm at the National Arts Club, 15 Gramercy Park, New York.