The sixth Poet Laureate of the Library of Congress, Van Duyn is the author of seven books of poetry, most recently, Near Changes (1990), for which she won the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for poetry. Born in Waterloo, Iowa, Van Duyn has lived in St. Louis since 1950. She was a lecturer at Washington University from 1950 to 1967. Noted for her subtle intelligence, her humor and satire, her formal elegance, and her compassionate attentiveness to the human heart, Van Duyn takes as her theme "the wintry work of living, our flawed art." Her work was slow to receive the recognition it deserved. However, in 1971 she won the Bollingen Prize; several major awards and grants soon followed.