Maxine Kumin, Poet and Author (1925-2014)

Maxine Kumin was the author of eighteen poetry collections as well as numerous novels, essays, memoirs, and children’s books.

Kumin’s many awards include the Eunice Tietjens Memorial Prize for Poetry (1972), the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (1973) for Up Country, in 1995 the Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry, the 1994 Poets’ Prize (for Looking for Luck), an American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters Award for excellence in literature (1980), an Academy of American Poets fellowship (1986), the 1999 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, and many honorary degrees. From 1981–1982, she served as the poetry consultant to the Library of Congress (now called U.S. Poet Laureate).