Maxine Kumin (June 6, 1925 – February 6, 2014) served as U.S. Poet Laureate from 1981 – 82. Other honors include a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, an Academy of American Poets fellowship, the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, and an American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters Award for excellence in literature. Kumin is the author of eighteen books of poems, including Up Country (1972), Our Ground Time Here Will Be Brief (1982), The Long Marriage, (2001), and Where I Live (2011). She also published a memoir, The Pawnbroker’s Daughter (2015), and 25 books for children.