Poet Lucie Brock-Broido dead at 61

NEW YORK – Lucie Brock-Broido, a prize-winning poet and educator, has died at age 61.

Publisher Alfred A. Knopf announced Wednesday that Brock-Broido died Tuesday at her home in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The cause of death was not immediately provided.

Brock-Broido was the author of four poetry books, most recently “Stay, Illusion,” a finalist for the National Book Award and National Book Critics Circle prize. Her other honours include the Witter Bynner Poetry Prize and the Harvard Phi Beta Kappa Teaching Award. She directed the creative writing program at Harvard and the poetry division of Columbia University’s writing program.

Brock-Broido was a Pittsburgh native and studied at Johns Hopkins University and Columbia University. Wallace Stevens was among her influences.

In a statement Wednesday, Knopf editor Deborah Garrison praised her “beautifully embroidered, fanciful language.”