By AP/KWMU
University City, MO – The nation's first female poet laureate died Thursday morning at her home in University City.
Mona Van Duyn was 83; she had been battling bone cancer.
She was named poet laurete in 1992, a year after winning the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry for her book "Near Changes." She served for just a year in that post.
Van Duyn also taught at Washington University for decades and published nine volumes of poetry. She also won a National Book Award in 1971 for a book of poems called "To See, To Take,"
Van Duyn was born in Waterloo, Iowa. She had a reputation at Washington University for strong instruction of young writers.
She's survived by her husband, Jarvis Thurston, who said a memorial service is expected to be held at a later date.