A new year is upon us, which brings with it reflections on the year behind us. We at the PLC thank you, our readers and audiences, for a literary year to remember, and offer you best wishes for the year to come. And now, the inevitable question: How will you be ringing in the new …
The following guest post, part of our “Teacher’s Corner” series, is by Rebecca Newland, a Fairfax County Public Schools Librarian and former Teacher in Residence at the Library of Congress. If a picture is indeed worth a thousand words, why not use photographs to prompt poetry? First select engaging photographs from the collections of the …
When I was a child my family would gather each year at my aunt’s house on Christmas Eve for a night of festivities and merriment. And each year, far and away my favorite activity was our traditional singing of “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” Each of us would draw one of the twelve days from …
The following post is part of our monthly series, “Literary Treasures,” which highlights audio and video recordings drawn from the Library’s extensive online collections, including the Archive of Recorded Poetry and Literature. By showcasing the works and thoughts of some of the greatest poets and writers from the past 75 years, the series advances the Library’s …
Here’s a fun fact: the current Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry, Juan Felipe Herrera, is in the unusual position of pre-dating our current Librarian of Congress! Herrera was appointed by the previous Librarian, James H. Billington, and he was re-appointed by acting Librarian David Mao back in April—five months before the swearing-in of Dr. Carla …
The following article (“Ingenuity and Homage: Poetic Lotería by Artemio Rodríguez”) was written by Katherine Blood, curator of fine prints in the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, and originally appeared in On Paper: Journal of the Washington Print Club (Fall 2016 Volume 1, No. 2) as a “Curator’s Choice” feature. We are reprinting …
The following cross-post was written by Jason Steinhauer, program specialist at The John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress. It originally appeared on the Insights blog. Walt Whitman has been the subject of rigorous study for more than 100 years. Is there anything left to discover? Three former Kluge fellows and scholars of …
Calling all grade school librarians and teachers across the country: Now’s the time to work with your second and third graders to read Chapter Two of “The Technicolor Adventures of Catalina Neon” and respond to the prompt, helping Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera decide what happens to Catalina and her dog, Tortilla, in Chapter Three. …
The following guest post, part of our “Teacher’s Corner” series, is by Rebecca Newland, a Fairfax County Public Schools Librarian and former Teacher in Residence at the Library of Congress. Like writers of fiction and non-fiction, poets use their work as a forum for social commentary. Often this commentary is directly related to historical events …