Law Library of Congress and Poetry and Literature Center to Host Award-Winning Poet Monica Youn

The following cross-post was written by Liah Caravalho, program specialist in the Law Library’s Office of Legislative and External Relations. It originally appeared on the In Custodia Legis blog.

On the evening of Thursday, October 20, 2016, the Library of Congress will host award-winning poet and attorney Monica Youn. Youn will read from her latest collection of poetry, Blackacre (Graywolf Press, 2016), which has been longlisted for the National Book Award in Poetry. Youn will also participate in a conversation with Martha Dragich, professor emerita of law at the University of Missouri School of Law about the influence of her legal training and career on her poetry.

In addition to Blackacre, which is titled after the legal term “blackacre,” Youn is also the author of two other collections of poetry: Ignatz (Four Way Books, 2010), which was a finalist for the 2010 National Book Award for Poetry, and Barter (Graywolf Press, 2003). She received a B.A. from Princeton University, a J.D. from Yale Law School, and an M.A. from the University of Oxford, where she was a Rhodes Scholar.

As a practicing attorney for over a decade, Youn litigated cases in the Supreme Court, testified before Congress and provided political commentary for PBS, MSNBC, Slate, and the New York Times. She has also received a number of prestigious fellowships including the Wallace Stegner Fellowship at Stanford University and the Witter Bynner Fellowship of the Library of Congress, as well as writing residencies at the Civitella Ranieri Foundation, Yaddo, the MacDowell Colony, and the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center. She currently teaches at Princeton University and in the Sarah Lawrence College and Warren Wilson College Master of Fine Arts programs.

Martha Dragich, who will lead the discussion with Youn, has been a member of the faculty of the University of Missouri School of Law since 1993. She has taught a wide variety of courses, most recently conflict of laws, federal courts, food law and policy, and law and literature. She led the development of the Law School’s One Read program in 2015. Dragich holds B.A., M.A., and J.D. degrees from the University of Minnesota and an LL.M. in agricultural and food law from the University of Arkansas. Earlier in her career, Dragich served as a law librarian at the University of Houston, Georgia State University, George Washington University, and the Administrative Office of U.S. Courts. She grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota.

The Law Library of Congress and the Library of Congress Poetry and Literature Center are jointly hosting this event from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. in the Mumford Room, located on the sixth floor of the Library’s James Madison Building, 101 Independence Ave. S.E., Washington, DC. The event is free and tickets are not required.

We hope you can join us!