Adrienne Rich, born in Baltimore, Maryland, is a leading American poet with nineteen volumes of poetry and four books of essays. Rich was at the forefront of the feminist movement and brought her politics into poetry. She gained early fame when W.H. Auden selected A Change of World as winner of the Yale Younger Poets Prize in 1951. Since then, she has won numerous awards including the National Book Award and the first Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize. For many years she has lived and taught in California.