Lucille Clifton currently serves as Distinguished Professor of Humanities at St. Mary's College of Maryland, and the Blackburn Professor of Creative Writing at Duke University. She has published ten books of poetry, most recently Terrible Stories (BOA, 1996; Slow Dancer, 1998). Her most recent awards include a 1999-2002 Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund Artist Award and a 1997 Lannan Foundation Achievement Award in Poetry. In 1998 she was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa and the National Literature Hall of Fame for African American Writers.