National Book Award-winning poet Lucille Clifton died yesterday at age 73 following a long battle with cancer, Baltimore Sun reports. Author of 11 poetry books and numerous books for children, Clifton wrote poems of compassion and social conscience. Her long list of accolades also includes an Emmy Award, the 2007 Ruth Lilly Prize and two Pulitzer Prize nominations. 

“Clifton’s work emphasizes endurance and strength through adversity,” reads a bio at The Poetry Foundation Web site. “Ronald Baughman suggested in his Dictionary of Literary Biography essay that Clifton’s ‘pride in being black and in being a woman helps her transform difficult circumstances into a qualified affirmation about the black urban world she portrays.’”