With Wednesday’s announcement of Juan Felipe Herrera as the Library’s 21st Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry, hundreds of articles and spotlights appeared–more than any one person could go through! Of course, the best place to start finding out about Juan Felipe is on the Library’s website–here’s his LC Web Guide, courtesy of fellow “Catbird” blogger Peter Armenti.
Here are lines from a few of my favorite newspaper articles of the last two days:
- “[Herrera’s] art goes beyond his ‘Latinoness,’ for he writes about the human condition more than anything.”
- “I tell my workshop students, I want you to think of yourselves as artists. Then when you’re writing, you’re painting, you’re crafting, you’re making a design, you’re sculpting, you’re creating choreography, sound, a sound script. You’re composing a choir on the page.”
- “If I have a melody going, I can feel it for days.”
- “‘My mother would be so happy,’ Herrera said of his appointment. ‘She’d be clapping. Maybe crying. And dancing.'”
- “What a day: Not only was the Fowler native named the next poet laureate of the United States by the Library of Congress, he also managed to score a few husband points.”
And here are two articles I would specifically like to point to, for the best/most surprising titles:
- 7 Surprisingly Practical Lessons From America’s New Poet Laureate
- This Guitar-Playing ***** Is The New Poet Laureate Of The United States
In addition to articles, there were some great audio and video pieces that followed the announcement:
- A video segment that includes our new Poet Laureate reading poems in a field, outside the town where he was born (and following a touching blog post)
- A radio interview which includes this great quote: “The goal for me is to be as expansive as possible, and the Library of Congress offers so many resources . . . I want to invite all communities to take part.”
Finally, the literary community rallied around the announcement. A few great pages:
- A blog from Letras Latinas titled “JFH: testimonio on the occasion of a laureateship”
- A release from Split This Rock with the quote, “Herrera’s appointment would make the man responsible for the Poet Laureate position . . . Senator Spark Matsunaga, very happy. The position Matsunaga championed is finally beginning to represent the diversity of this country we all share.”
- A roundup of articles on the Poetry Foundation site, that also includes this quote: “Juan Felipe Herrera is a gifted and accomplished poet, as well as a dynamic literary citizen. He makes friends easily, and will make friends for poetry, too.”
Hope you enjoy! And please send along any links you like.