Nelson, Marilyn

Marilyn Nelson was born 26 April 1946 to Johnnie E. Nelson and Melvin Nelson, Sr. She is a graduate of Hiram Johnson High School and the University of California at Davis, and has a Master's degree from the University of Pennsylvania . She is the author of 6 books of poetry, 2 children's collections and a few chapter books. Her book Carver: A life in Poems has been awarded the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for excellence in children's literature. The Homeplace was a finalist for the National Book Award and the Lenore Marshall Prize and won the 1998 Poet's Prize . Nelson has received a Guggenheim Fellowship and recently named Connecticut's Poet Laureate by the Connecticut Commission on the Arts . Marilyn Nelson has been teaching at the University of Connecticut since 1978 .