Adrienne Rich

Adrienne Rich
Rich in 1983
BornAdrienne Cecile Rich
(1929-05-16)May 16, 1929
Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
DiedMarch 27, 2012(2012-03-27) (aged 82)
Santa Cruz, California, U.S.
Occupation
  • Poet
  • non-fiction writer
  • essayist
EducationHarvard University (BA)
GenrePoetry, non-fiction
Notable worksDiving Into the Wreck and The Trees
Notable awardsNational Book Award
1974
Bollingen Prize
2003
Griffin Poetry Prize
2010
Spouse
Alfred Haskell Conrad
(m. 1953; died 1970)
PartnerMichelle Cliff (1976–2012)
Children3

Adrienne Cecile Rich (/ˈædriɛn/; May 16, 1929 – March 27, 2012) was an American poet, essayist and feminist. She was called "one of the most widely read and influential poets of the second half of the 20th century",[1][2] and was credited with bringing "the oppression of women and lesbians to the forefront of poetic discourse".[3] Rich criticized the rigid identities that are sometimes created by feminism, called for feminism that is flexible and open to being transformed, and drew attention to the existing current of solidarity and creativity among women, which she named the "lesbian continuum".[4]

Her first collection of poetry, A Change of World, was selected by W. H. Auden for the Yale Series of Younger Poets Award. Auden went on to write the introduction to the book. Rich famously declined the National Medal of Arts to protest House Speaker Newt Gingrich's vote to end funding for the National Endowment for the Arts.

  1. ^ Nelson, Cary, editor. Anthology of Modern American Poetry. Oxford University Press. 2000.
  2. ^ "Poet Adrienne Rich, 82, has died". Los Angeles Times. March 28, 2012. Retrieved March 29, 2012.
  3. ^ Flood, Alison (March 29, 2012). "Adrienne Rich, award-winning poet and essayist, dies". The Guardian. Retrieved March 29, 2012.
  4. ^ Gerstner, David A. (2006). Routledge International Encyclopedia of Queer Culture. New York: Routledge Taylor and Francis Group. pp. 484. ISBN 0-415-30651-5.