(1940 – 1996) Russian-born Jewish poet who left the USSR in 1972 for exile after a life of protest and persecution. He became a US citizen in 1977 where he taught at Mount Holyoke College and also received a MacArthur Award. A bilingual writer, he published both poetry and essays. After winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1987, he also became American poet laureate from 1991 to 1992