Adrienne Rich (1929–2012) was an American poet, essayist, and scholar and considered one of the most influential poets of the late twentieth century. Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Rich graduated from Radcliffe College in 1951 and published her first collection of poems, A Change of World, the same year. In 1974, she won the National Book Award for her poetry collection Diving into the Wreck, and in 1976, she published Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution, an essay collection that established Rich as a women’s rights advocate. She won many awards during her writing career, including a fellowship from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation (1994) and the National Book Critics Circle Award (2005).

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