Noted Poet Wanda Coleman Dies at 67

By City News Service

Wanda Coleman, a Watts native considered Los Angeles' unofficial poet laureate, has died after a long illness.

Coleman, whose poems, novels and other works delved into race, poverty and the struggles of urban life, died Friday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, her husband, poet Austin Straus, told the Los Angeles Times. She was 67.

She began writing poetry at age 5 and published her first short story, "Watching the Sunset," in 1970, according to The Poetry Foundation.

Coleman, who was born in Los Angeles on Nov. 13, 1946, penned 22 books, including novels and collections of poetry and essays, according to The Times.

She won an Emmy as a writer for "Days of Our Lives" in 1975-76 and earned a National Endowment for the Arts grant in 1981-82 and a Guggenheim Fellowship for Poetry in 1984 after the publication of "Mad Dog Black Lady" in 1979 and "Imagoes" in 1983, according to The Poetry Foundation.

Her 1998 poetry collection "Bathwater Wine" garnered the 1999 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize and another collection, "Mercurochrome," was a 2001 National Book Awards bronze medal finalist in poetry.

Coleman, who received the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs' first literary award for 2003-04, was a nominee for California poet Laureate in 2005.