Congrats to poet Lucille Clifton for winning the $100,000 US Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, for her lifetime achievements as a US poet. She's the first African American to win the award. Clifton is the author of "Quilting: Poems 1987 - 1990." Congrats to poet Lucille Clifton for winning the $100,000 US Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, for her lifetime achievements as a US poet. She's the first African American to win the award. Clifton is the author of "Quilting: Poems 1987 - 1990."