Audre Geraldine Lorde

Bio

(1934-1992) Poet, writer, essayist, novelist, and teacher. Audre Lorde was born in New York City, and grew up in Manhattan, New York, where she attended Catholic school. She was a Hunter graduate in 1959 with a bachelor’s degree. In 1961 she received a Masters in library science from Columbia University and worked as a librarian at Mount Vernon Public Library until 1963. From 1966 to 1968 she worked as head librarian at Town School Library in New York City. In 1968, she was a recipient of an NEA grant, and was a poet in residence at Tougaloo College in Mississippi. From 1991 until her death, she was the New York State Poet laureate.
Her poetry books from this time include “The First Cities” (1968), and “Cables to Rage” (1970). In 1972, she received a Creative Artists Public Service grant. “From a Land where Other People Live” (1972) was nominated for a National Book Award.