Carol Muske-Dukes (born 1945 in Saint Paul, Minnesota) is an American poet, novelist, essayist, critic, and professor, and the former poet laureate of California (2008–2011).
[1] Her most recent book of poetry, Sparrow (Random House, 2003), chronicling the love and loss of Muske-Dukes’ late husband, actor David Dukes, was a National Book Award finalist.
She is one of the founding members of the USC PhD in Creative Writing & Literature, where she currently teaches.
[4] She has a daughter, Annie Muske-Dukes, who graduated from USC in May 2005,[2] and she is the widow of actor David Dukes, who died in 2000.
[5] Her work has appeared in Antaeus, Ploughshares,[6] Paris Review,[7] and The New Yorker.