Nikki Giovanni receives a posthumous honor, the Frost Medal for lifetime achievement

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NEW YORK (AP) — Two months after her death, poet Nikki Giovanni has been awarded one of the top honors for her art form, the Frost Medal for lifetime achievement.

The Poetry Society of America said Wednesday that it had discussed giving the prize to Giovanni before her death. Giovanni died in December and is being honored posthumously.

“Nikki Giovanni loomed as an essential and powerful figure in American literature and culture, the author of three dozen books of poetry, essays, and children’s writing,” the poetry society's citation reads in part. “With insight and stark intelligence, Giovanni’s written works articulate the highest hopes of our nation as a land where all are valued and all are free to be themselves and love who they wish to love.”

First presented in 1930, the medal is named for Robert Frost and has been given to Wallace Stevens, Allen Ginsberg and Adrienne Rich among others.