Award-winning poet Ruth Stone dies at 96 (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? Award-winning poet Ruth Stone, who drew imagery and inspiration from the natural sciences, has died at age 96 in Vermont, her daughter said on Thursday.

Stone, who won the National Book Award in 2002 for her collection of poems "In the Next Galaxy," died last week in Ripton, Vermont, surrounded by her three daughters, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, Phoebe Stone told Reuters.

"She died of natural causes, she was 96," said Stone, who is an author of children's books.

For 20 years Stone taught creative writing at several U.S. universities, including the University of Illinois, the University of Wisconsin, Indiana University, the University of California at Davis and Brandeis. She finally settled at State University of New York at Binghamton.

She was named Vermont's poet laureate in 2007.

A native of Roanoke, Virginia, Stone raised her children alone after her husband committed suicide in 1959. She described her work as "love poems, all written to a dead man" who forced her to "reside in limbo" with her daughters.

Stone was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for poetry and won the National Book Critics Circle Award.

(Reporting by Ian Simpson: Editing by Alex Dobuzinskis)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/celebrity/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111124/people_nm/us_stone_obit

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