Adrienne Rich

Diving into the Wreck, published in 1973, uses an underwater exploration as a metaphor for history, gender, and self-knowledge. The book won the 1974 National Book Award for Poetry.

Rich accepted the 1974 National Book Award with Audre Lorde and Alice Walker on behalf of women whose voices had been excluded. The moment connected her poetry to feminist literary politics.

Of Woman Born, published in 1976, is Rich's influential prose book on motherhood as experience and institution. It became a major text in feminist criticism.

Yes, Rich refused the National Medal of Arts in 1997. She wrote that she could not accept the award from the Clinton administration while objecting to its social and cultural policies.