KUMIN, MAXINE

born June 6, 1925, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. original name Maxine Winokur American Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, novelist, and children's author. Kumin's novels were praised in literary circles, but she was best known for her poetry, written primarily in traditional forms, on the subjects of loss, fragility, family, and the cycles of life and nature. After graduating from Radcliffe College (A.B., 1946; M.A., 1948), Kumin taught English at several colleges. In the 1950s she met the poet Anne Sexton, who influenced her stylistic development and with whom she collaborated on several children's books. Kumin's first book of poetry, Halfway, was published in 1961. The Privilege (1965) and The Nightmare Factory (1970) address issues of Jewish identity and family and of love between men and women. Kumin's New Hampshire farm was the inspiration for her collection Up Country: Poems of New England, New and Selected (1972; Pulitzer Prize, 1973). Critics compared Kumin to Robert Frost and Henry David Thoreau for her precise, unsentimental evocations of rural New England and the rhythms of daily life. The poet's later works include the acclaimed The Retrieval System (1978) and Our Ground Time Here Will Be Brief (1982), which continued her reflections on nature and death, including Sexton's 1974 suicide. Kumin's use of metre, rhyme, and structure became increasingly sophisticated. From the 1980s she began to address social issues in her poetry; some critics thought this weakened her work. Her Selected Poems, 19601990 was published in 1997. Kumin's numerous children's books also reflect her love of nature and interest in family, and her short-story collection, Why Can't We Live Together like Civilized Human Beings? (1982), further explores issues of loss and relationships between men and women. Kumin served as poetry consultant to the Library of Congress (now poet laureate consultant in poetry) from 1981 to 1982.