--- title: Pulitzer-Winning Poet Laureate Mark Strand Dead at 80 description: His career spanned 50 years canonical: https://time.com/3610776/poet-laureate-mark-strand-obit/ author: Entertainment Weekly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-11-30T14:23:17.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T02:27:10.162Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Pulitzer-Winning Poet Laureate Mark Strand Dead at 80 og:description: His career spanned 50 years og:url: https://time.com/3610776/poet-laureate-mark-strand-obit/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt127660ba98c38083/69876b78cd684818840984c4/mark-strand.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Portrait Of Mark Strand og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Pulitzer-Winning Poet Laureate Mark Strand Dead at 80 twitter:description: His career spanned 50 years twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt127660ba98c38083/69876b78cd684818840984c4/mark-strand.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Pulitzer-Winning Poet Laureate Mark Strand Dead at 80 by [Entertainment Weekly / Joshua Rivera](https://time.com/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## Entertainment Weekly / Joshua Rivera Nov 30, 2014 2:23 PM UTC  Portrait of US Poet Laureate Mark Strand in New York City in 2000. Portrait of US Poet Laureate Mark Strand in New York City in 2000.Chris Felver—Getty Images by [Entertainment Weekly / Joshua Rivera](https://time.com/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## Entertainment Weekly / Joshua Rivera Nov 30, 2014 2:23 PM UTC Pulitzer Prize-winning poet laureate Mark Strand died on Saturday. According to his daughter, Jessica Strand, the cause of death was liposarcoma, or cancer of the fat cells. He was 80 years old. According to [The New York _Times_](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/30/nyregion/mark-strand-80-dies-pulitzer-winning-poet-laureate.html?%5Fr=0), Strand died in his daughter’s Brooklyn home. Strand’s career spanned 50 years, with his first collection, _Sleeping With One Eye Open_, published in 1964\. He would be named poet laureate of the United States in 1990, and win the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1999 for his collection _Blizzard of One_. In addition to his daughter, Strand is survived by his son, Thomas, his partner, Maricruz Bilbao, his siblings Judith Major and Tom, and a grandson. [_This article originally appeared at EW.com_](http://news-briefs.ew.com/2014/11/29/poet-laureate-mark-strand-dies-at-80/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3610776/poet-laureate-mark-strand-obit/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3610776/poet-laureate-mark-strand-obit/"},"headline":"Pulitzer-Winning Poet Laureate Mark Strand Dead at 80","datePublished":"2014-11-30T14:23:17.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T02:27:10.162Z","description":"His career spanned 50 years","url":"https://time.com/3610776/poet-laureate-mark-strand-obit/","keywords":["Books","Poetry","Literature"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt127660ba98c38083/69876b78cd684818840984c4/mark-strand.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Entertainment Weekly / Joshua Rivera"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt127660ba98c38083/69876b78cd684818840984c4/mark-strand.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Portrait Of Mark Strand","caption":"Portrait Of Mark Strand","creditText":"Chris Felver—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/books/","name":"Books"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3610776/poet-laureate-mark-strand-obit/","name":"Pulitzer-Winning Poet Laureate Mark Strand Dead at 80"}}]}] ```