Author Lucille Clifton to give public reading March 20

Prizewinning children's book author and poet Lucille Clifton will give a public reading of her work at 7:30 p.m. March 20 at the Great Plains Art Gallery, 1155 Q St.

The reading will be part of her week in residence (March 19-23) in the University of Nebraska-Lincoln English department.

Clifton's more than 20 children's books, written expressly with an African-American audience in mind, include "All Us Come Cross the Water," "My Friend Jacob" and "Three Wishes." She also wrote an award-winning series of books featuring events in the life of Everett Anderson, a young African-American boy. These include "Some of the Days of Everett Anderson" and "Everett Anderson's Goodbye." Besides appearing in more than 100 anthologies of poetry, she has come to popular attention through television appearances on "Today," "Nightline," and Bill Moyers' series, "The Power of the Word."

Clifton received two creative writing fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, and a grant from the American Academy of Poets. She also received the Shelley Memorial Prize, the Charity Randall prize, the Shestack Prize from the American Poetry Review, and an Emmy Award. In 1988, she became the first author to have two books of poetry chosen as finalists for the Pulitzer Prize.

Clifton attended Howard University and graduated from the State University of New York College at Fredonia in 1955. Following her graduation, she worked as a claims clerk in the New York State Division of Employment and as literature assistant in the Office of Education in Washington, D.C. In 1969, Clifton's first book, a collection of poetry called "Good Times," was published. The New York Times named it one of the year's 10 best books.

From 1971 to 1974 Clifton was poet-in-residence at Coppin State College in Baltimore, Md., and in 1979 was named poet laureate of the state of Maryland. She served as a visiting writer at both Columbia University's School of the Arts and George Washington University. She also taught literature and creative writing at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and St. Mary's College of Maryland.

CONTACT: Gerry Shapiro, Professor, English, (402) 472-3191