Marilyn Chin (1955– )
Poet and codirector of the MFA program at San Diego State University who was
born in Hong Kong and raised in Portland, Oregon. Her collections are Dwarf
Bamboo (1987), The Phoenix Gone, the Terrace Empty (1994), and Rhapsody in Plain
Yellow (2002).
Amy Clampitt (1920–1994)
Poet who did not publish her first poem until she was sixty-three. Her first col-
lection, The Kingf isher (1983), was followed by What the Light Was Like (1985),
Archaic Figure (1987), Westward (1990), and A Silence Opens (1994).
Michelle Cliff (1946– )
Jamaican American writer whose first two novels, Abeng (1984) and No Telephone
to Heaven (1987) and prose poem Claiming an Identity They Taught Me to Despise
(1980) discuss race-consciousness as a legacy of colonial racism. Her other works
include the novel Free Enterprise (1993) and the short-story collections Bodies of
Water (1990) and The Store of a Million Items (1998).
Lucille Clifton (1936–2010)
Poet whose collections include Good Times, which The New York Times called
one of the best books published in 1969. Her other works include Good Woman:
Poems and a Memoir, 1969–1980 (1987), Next: New Poems (1987), Quilting: Poems,
1987–1990 (1991), The Book of Light (1993), The Terrible Stories (1995), and Bless-
ing the Boats: New and Selected Poems, 1988–2000 (2000), which won the National
Book Award. She also wrote children’s books.
Judith Ortiz Cofer (1952– )
Writer of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction who was born in Puerto Rico and raised
there and in New Jersey and Georgia. Her poems have been collected in Latin
Women Pray (1980), Reaching for the Mainland (1987), Terms of Survival (1989),
The Latin Deli: Prose & Poetry (1993), and The Year of Our Revolution: New and
Selected Stories and Poems (1998). She is also the author of the young-adult book
An Island Like You: Stories of the Barrio (1996).
Edwidge Danticat (1969– )
Writer born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and raised from the age of twelve in New
York who is known primarily for her novel Breath, Eyes, Memory (1994). Her
other works include the novels The Farming of Bones (1998) and The Dew Breaker
(2004); a collection of stories, Krik? Krak! (1996); and a memoir, Brother, I’m
Dying (2007), which won the National Book Critics Circle Award.
Annie Dillard (1945– )
Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist, poet, and literary critic who is best known for her
narrative nonfiction, including Pilgrim at Tinker Creek (1974) and her memoir, An
American Childhood (1987).
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni (1957– )
Poet and fiction writer who was born in India and moved to the United States
in 1976. Her works include the poetry collection Leaving Yuba City (1997); the