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Archive: 2013 (47 Posts)

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Poetry in the School Library

Posted by: Robert Casper

The following is a guest post by Rebeca Newland, the Teacher in Residence at the Library of Congress for 2013-14. Most students leave high school having studied Shakespeare, the howls of Beowulf and Grendel in battle, and a smattering of American poets. Beyond the study of canonical poems and poets, how can we foster a …

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Hello Poetry Lovers!

Posted by: Robert Casper

The following is a guest post by William Thompson, administrative specialist for the Library of Congress American Folklife Center. My name is Brock Thompson, and this fall I’ve started working as the program coordinator for the Poetry and Literature Center. A native of Toad Suck, Arkansas, and an historian by trade, I am so delighted …

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Kluge Center Spotlight: Francesca Bratton on Hart Crane

Posted by: Robert Casper

The following is a guest post by Jason Michael David Steinhauer, program specialist in the Library of Congress Office of Scholarly Programs. The John W. Kluge Center welcomes promising young scholars from the United Kingdom to conduct research at the Library of Congress. The scholars—all currently pursuing doctorate degrees—are funded by the Arts and Humanities …

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A Thanksgiving Poem for Lincoln

Posted by: Peter Armenti

On October 3, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation that declared “the last Thursday of November next as a Day of Thanksgiving and Praise.” Lincoln’s famous Thanksgiving Day proclamation was in large part undertaken at the urging of  Sarah Josepha Hale—poet, novelist, editor of Godey’s Lady’s Book, and, lest we forget, author of the …

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W. H. Auden and Benjamin Britten

Posted by: Peter Armenti

On Friday, one of our sister blogs, the Music Division’s In the Muse, marked the hundredth birthday of British composer Benjamin Britten. Highlighting some of Music Division’s important Britten holdings, the post references a recording of Britten’s collaborator Peter Pears reciting W. H. Auden’s sonnet “The Composer” as part of a 1980 program at the …

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A Mushaira with the Parents

Posted by: Robert Casper

The following is a guest post from Samia Khan, who works as a classification assistant in the Library of Congress Office of Workforce Acquisitions. When Rob Casper asked me to write a post about my personal experience with poetry and literature, I was initially clueless. A History major in college, I hadn’t really read or …

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Former Poets Laureate Battle for Pop Culture Supremacy

Posted by: Peter Armenti

On Tuesday Former Poet Laureate Billy Collins achieved a type of immortality that has eluded all but a handful of poets: he appeared on Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report. In addition to discussing his new book, Aimless Love: New and Selected Poems, Collins talked about his time as Poet Laureate, describing how one becomes Poet …

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A Day of Celebration

Posted by: Robert Casper

The following is a guest post by Abby Yochelson, English and American Literature Reference Specialist at the Library of Congress’s Main Reading Room. “Capitol Hill is not just a place of politics but of language.”—Emma Snyder, Executive Director, PEN/Faulkner Foundation On September 30th—one day before the maelstrom of the federal government shutdown—our corner of Capitol …

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Goodbye to the Library

Posted by: Robert Casper

The following is a guest post from Caitlin Rizzo, who recently left the Library of Congress to become the program manager at the Writer’s Center in Bethesda, MD. Caitlin worked first as a Junior Fellow, then as the program support assistant, at the Poetry and Literature Center; she was also one of the three blog …