Brigit Pegeen Kelly (1951 – October 14, 2016) was an American poet and teacher. Born in Palo Alto, California, Kelly grew up in southern Indiana and lived much of her adult life in central Illinois. An intensely private woman, little is known about her life. Career Kelly was the winner of numerous awards and citations for her poetry, including the Yale Younger Poets award, a Whiting award, and, in 1997, was named the Lamont Poet at the Phillips Exeter Academy. Kelly was a professor of Creative Writing at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and served as senior poetry editor of Ninth Letter. She also taught, during different periods, at the University of California at Irvine, Purdue University, and Warren Wilson College. Awards 2008: Fellowship of the Academy of American Poets 2006: Fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation 2005: Pulitzer Prize (poetry), Finalist (for The Orchard) 2005: National Book Critics' Circle (poetry), Finalist 2005: Los Angeles Times Book Award (poetry), Finalist 2005: National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship 1999: American Academy of Arts and Letters Witter Bynner Poetry Prize 1996: Whiting Award 1995: Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Poetry, Finalist 1994: Lamont Poetry Prize (for Song) 1986: Yale Younger Poets Award, selected by James Merrill 1986: Discovery/The Nation Poetry Prize Books Chapbooks Anthologies References External links Academy of American Poets Biography Literary Agent site BOA Editions Biography Profile at The Whiting Foundation The Orchard reviewed in Double Room 1951 births 2016 deaths Purdue University faculty Warren Wilson College faculty University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign faculty University of California, Irvine faculty American women poets Yale Younger Poets winners Writers from Illinois Poets from Illinois American women academics 21st-century American women