Poet; born in Akron, Ohio.
She began writing verse as a youngster but only became serious about
poetry while attending Miami University, Ohio. She studied a year in
German.
Her poetry--such as the 1987
Pulitzer Prize-winning Thomas and Beulah--and her novels blend the
lyrical and personal with the precise and the contemporary. In 1993
she became the first African-American poet laureate of the Library of
Congress.
