Lucille Clifton was born in Depew, New York, on June 27, 1936. She originally studied at Howard University, but after suffering from poor grades, transferred to State University of New York at Fredonia. In 1958, she married Fred James Clifton who was a professor at the University of Buffalo.
Before she became famous with her writings, she was a worker for the government and a literature assistant for the Office of Education in Washington D.C. Fred and Lucille starred in “The Glass Menagerie” for the Buffalo Community Drama Workshop, which was called, “sensitive and poetic” by the Buffalo Evening News.
Later, Lucille was introduced to writer Ishmael Reed by her husband. Reed knew Lucille was working on some poems, so he brought them to author Langston Hughes, who included Clifton’s poems in his anthology, “The Poetry of the Negro”. From then, Lucille was noticed. Her first poetry collection, “Good Times”, was published in 1969 and referred by the New York Times as one of the year’s top ten best books.
From 1979 to 1985, Lucille was Poet Laureate of the state of Maryland. She also was a visiting writer at the Columbia University School of the Arts and at George Washington University.
Sadly, in 1984, her husband, Fred Clifton, died of cancer. After her husband’s passing, Lucille moved to California and became a professor of literature and creative writing at University of California, Santa Cruz. She continued on as a visiting writer and professor at various prestigious colleges, including Columbia University and Dartmouth College.
Lucille Clifton was a gifted poet and had two of her works nominated for Pulitzer Prizes. She also won the Coretta Scott King Award. In 1999, she was elected as Chanceloor of the Academy of American Poets.
Lucille Clifton died on February 13, 2010 after a long battle with cancer. She is set to receive the Robert Frost Medal for lifetime achievement for her outstanding works with poetry and society.

http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/79

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/lucille-clifton

Robert Frost was born on March 26, 1874 in San Francisco, California. While studying at Dartmouth College, Frost was a member of Greek life by joining the Theta Delta Chi fraternity. In 1895, he married Elinor, at Harvard University. Together they had six children. Tragically, four of the six passed away before Frost did from sickness, a car crash, and childbirth. In 1938, his wife passed away from a heart attack. Frost died many years later, on January 12, 1963 in Boston, but is buried in Vermont. At his funeral, the epitaph contains a quote from one of his poems, stating, “I had a lover’s quarrel with the world.”
Frost was a very accomplished writer. He won the Pulitzer Prize four times: 1924, 1931, 1937, and 1943. No one had won that many before he did. He also read a poem at the inauguration of John F. Kennedy. Originally he was to read a new poem he had made for the event, “The Gift Outright”, but after not reading it well, Frost recited another poem he knew well.