The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton

The central text in Smith’s seminar on Lucille Clifton. A collection spanning nearly five decades of Clifton’s work, bringing together her published poetry alongside previously unpublished poems from across her life and career.

Full title: The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton 1965–2010, edited by Kevin Young and Michael S. Glaser, with a foreword by Toni Morrison.

Lucille Clifton (1936–2010) was an American poet whose collection Blessing the Boats won the National Book Award. She served as Poet Laureate of Maryland and taught Tracy K. Smith at Columbia.