Poets' Biography
It is important for students to identify with the poets whose works they will be reading. For this reason, I will provide them with the following biographical information because the majority of the works we will read will be by these poets:
Gwendolyn Brooks (deceased)
Date of birth: June 7, 1917
Place of birth: Topeka, Kansas
Achievements: In 1950 Gwendolyn Brooks became the first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize in poetry. "Eventide" was her first published poem. It was published in American Childhood Magazine when she was thirteen.
Rita Dove
Date of birth: August 28, 1952
Place of birth: Akron, Ohio
Achievements: Rita Dove won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1986. She was the first woman and first African American to be appointed poet laureate of the United States in 1993. She was the first person to be appointed poet laureate for two terms.
Langston Hughes (deceased)
Date of birth: February 1, 1902
Place of birth: Joplin, Missouri
Achievements: Langston Hughes' first published poem was "The Negro Speaks of the Rivers." He wrote sixteen books of poems, two novels, three collections of short stories, four volumes of "editorial" and "documentary" fiction, twenty plays, children's poetry, musicals and operas, three autobiographies, a dozen radio and television scripts and dozens of magazine articles. In addition, he edited seven anthologies. The long and distinguished list of Hughes' works includes: Not Without Laughter (1930); The Big Sea (1940); I Wonder As I Wander (1956), his autobiographies. His collections of poetry include: The Weary Blues (1926); The Negro Mother and other Dramatic Recitations (1931); The Dream Keeper (1932); Shakespeare In Harlem (1942); Fields of Wonder (1947); One Way Ticket (1947); The First Book of Jazz (1955); Tambourines To Glory (1958); and Selected Poems (1959); The Best of Simple (1961). He edited several anthologies in an attempt to popularize black authors and their works. Some of these are: An African Treasury (1960); Poems from Black Africa (1963); New Negro Poets: USA (1964) and The Best Short Stories by Negro Writers (1967). (Jackson, June 11)
Ray Durem (deceased)
Date of birth: 1915
Place of birth: Seattle, Washington
Achievements: He was a veteran of the Spanish Civil War and made his home in Mexico.
Note: Very little is written about him as a poet; therefore, he would be a great subject for a research project.
Lucille Clifton
Date of birth: June 27, 1936
Place of birth: Depew, New York
Achievements: Lucille Clifton served as Poet Laureate of Maryland from 1979 to 1982. Her first book, a collection of poetry entitled Good Times, was listed as one of the New York Times top ten books in 1969.
Countee Cullen (deceased)
Date of birth: March 30, 1903
Place of birth: New York and Baltimore have been given as Cullen's place of birth, but scholars have been unable to confirm where he spent his early years and with whom he spent them. Cullen lists Louisville, Kentucky as his place of birth on a New York University college transcript, but after he received literary fame, he proclaimed New York as his birth place.
Achievements: Countee Cullen received a master of arts at Harvard University. After a fellowship in Paris, he returned to New York and wrote poetry and other literary works during the Harlem Renaissance. He did not want to be defined as a "black" poet, and he was opposed to writing in dialect. He married Yolande DuBois, the only child of W. E. B. DuBois on April 9, 1928. Although it was the most lavish wedding for a black in New York history, the marriage lasted only 2 years.
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