First Female U.S. Poet Laureate Van Duyn Dies [US]:
NEW YORK (Reuters) - America's first female poet laureate Mona Van Duyn, once described as a pioneer of the poetry of the suburbs, has died in St. Louis at the age of 83, her publisher Alfred A. Knopf said on Thursday.
Born May 9, 1921 in Waterloo, Iowa, Van Duyn started writing poetry secretly in notebooks while she was at grade school and was a voracious reader. Recalling her small town childhood, Van Duyn said in a 1991 interview: "One was made to stay after school and learn a poem."
In 1970 her collection of poems "To See, To Take" won the National Book Award and in 1991 she was awarded the Pulitzer for "Near Changes." She was poet laureate from 1992 to 1993. [...]
The Academy of American Poets has three of her poems.
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