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Celebrating the Bobbitt Prize–Over Twenty Years Strong

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The cover of the print program for the inaugural Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry, in 1990.

On Thursday, December 8, the Library of Congress will host the winners of the 2022 Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry, Rita Dove and Heid E. Erdrich. The event will take place at 7pm ET at LJ-119, Thomas Jefferson Building, and timed-entry passes are still available.

Dove and Erdrich join a long and distinguished list of winners throughout the 22-year history of the prize. For more on the Bobbitt prize, here are a few highlighted links:

Bobbitt Prize winner Patricia Smith in the Main Reading Room during a Presidents Day open house, Feb. 16, 2015. Photo by Shawn Miller.

We are eager to return to the Library this year for the Bobbitt Prize, the first time it will be held in the Library’s historic Jefferson Building as part of its new “LIVE! at the Library” series. We hope you come check out former U.S. Poet Laureate Rita Dove and National Poetry Series winner Heid E. Erdrich, reading in one of the Library’s most beautiful and intimate spaces, and also grab a drink or bite to eat in the Great Hall!