Maxine Kumin

Maxine Kumin served as Poet Laureate from 1981 to 1982. Her poetry has been set to music by American composers Dennis DeSantis and Kathryn Alexander.

Photo: Maxine Kumin, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division

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About

“Kumin, born and raised in Philadelphia, received a bachelor’s degree in 1946 and a master’s in 1948 from Radcliffe College. Her poetry themes include family relationships, rural life in New England and the inner life of women. She won the Pulitzer Prize in 1973 for Up Country: Poems of New England. The mother of three children, she published 11 books of poetry, taught for several years at Tufts and served as poet in residence at many colleges and universities. She and her husband raised horses on their farm in New Hampshire.”

–Library of Congress Poets Laureate page

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