A 1942 CHS graduate, Kumin always wanted to be a free-lance writer. While at CHS she was editor of the school paper and contributed articles for the school's magazine. After her graduation from Radcliffe College, she pursued her ambition, turning out children's books, novels and volumes of poetry. She was recently named consultant in poetry at the Library of Congress, the fifth woman to fill this position since the post was created in 1936. She assumed her duties this month.

Kumin's awards and grants are numerous, including, among others:

• American Academy & Institute of Arts and Letters Award, 1980
• Radcliffe College Alumnae Recognition award, 1978
• first prize, Borestone Mountain Award, Best Poems of 1976
• Poetry Magazine's annual Eunice Tietjens Memorial Prize, 1972

She has held various positions, some of which include:

• Visiting Lecturer, Princeton University, spring 1979
• Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellow, 1979-80
• Bell Visiting Scholar, Randolph-Macon Woman's College, February 1978
• Adjunct Professor of Writing, Columbia University, spring 1975
• Hurst Professor of Literature, Brandeis University, fall 1975

Kumin's perennially popular poetic works include: The Retrieval System (1978) and House, Bridge, Fountain, Gate (1975). Her novels include The Designated Heir (1974), The Abduction (1971), and The Passions of Uxport (1968). Her book Up Country won the 1973 Pulitzer prize for poetry. The book is about nature and the creatures that inhabit the countryside around the farmhouse in Warner, N.H., where she now lives.

Kumin and her husband Victor have three children, two daughters and a son. She lives on a 200-acre farm along with two dalmatians, several horses, and some Scotch Highland heifers.