Lucille Clifton, 13th Annual ODU Literary Festival

Abstract

Nominated for Pulitzer Prizes for three of her collections, Two-Headed Woman, Good Woman: Poems and a Memoir 1969-1980, and Next: New Poems, Lucille Clifton\u27s succinct comment on her work in the third edition of Contemporary Poets consists of one sentence: I am a Black woman poet, and I sound like one. In their distilled brevity, her poems are strongly connected to Black spirituals and folksongs, to the rhythms of jazz and blues, to revival meetings and magical incantations. In addition to her poetry, she has written for television, winning an Emmy for her contribution to Free To Be You and Me and high praise for her many children\u27s books. The hallmarks of her writing are a belief in the language of poetry, the power of song, and the courage of the human heart