NPR: African American Women Seize 2007 Poets' Prizes

Lucille Clifton (Lilly Prize), Natasha Trethewey (the Pulitzer), Elizabeth Alexander (the Jackson Poetry Award), and more...

NPR's broadcast points out that 2007 is the first year African American women have seized four of the major U.S. poetry prizes. It's worth a listen:

Black Women Shine in This Year's Poetry Prizes

by Judy Valente

Listen HERE [6 min 17 sec]

All Things Considered, November 18, 2007 · Four of the most prestigious poetry prizes went to African-American women this year. Some say the accolades are well overdue. Fueling this trend are a growing number of literary organizations that nurture the work specifically of black writers.
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from QUILTING by Lucille Clifton:

wishes for sons
by Lucille Clifton

i wish them cramps.
i wish them a strange town
and the last tampon.
I wish them no 7-11.

i wish them one week early
and wearing a white skirt.
i wish them one week late.

later i wish them hot flashes
and clots like you
wouldn't believe. let the
flashes come when they
meet someone special.
let the clots come
when they want to.

let them think they have accepted
arrogance in the universe,
then bring them to gynecologists
not unlike themselves.