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Category: Poets Laureate

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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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Lit Links for the Work Week

Posted by: Caitlin Rizzo

Yesterday marked the 100th birthday of Robert Hayden, who was the first African American to be named to the Library of Congress Consultant in Poetry position–what we today would call the Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry–in 1976. NPR commemorated Hayden’s birthday by featuring an archived recording: “In His Own Words.” Over at the Los Angeles …

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Always a Laureate

Posted by: Robert Casper

For this 4th of July post, I would like to begin by saluting former Poet Laureate Billy Collins. Since the beginning of June Billy has served as the summer host for Garrison Keillor’s daily radio feature The Writer’s Almanac. Billy’s project as Laureate, “Poetry 180,” was a huge success, and we still get calls and …

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Lit Links for the Work Week

Posted by: Caitlin Rizzo

Last Friday, Julio Cortazar’s groundbreaking novel Hopscotch turned 50. For a slightly late Monday morning celebration, Cortazar fans should head to the Los Angeles Review of Books to read Ted Gioia’s essay “How to Win at Hopscotch.” Of course, if you’ve only read Cortazar’s short story collection you received for Christmas two years ago, you …

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Lit Links for the Work Week

Posted by: Caitlin Rizzo

In case you missed it, Bookriot’s Sunday Diversion “Guess These Books by the Catalog Cards” featured Library of Congress subject headings in a game to test your literary chops. Check out the Library’s catalog to create your own literary diversions. The New Yorker’s PageTurner announced last week that Tom Wolfe’s upcoming book will be based …

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The Voice I Want to Be Heard

Posted by: Caitlin Rizzo

The following is a guest post written by Courtney Deal, a summer intern at the Library of Congress Poetry and Literature Center. Two years ago when Philip Levine was named Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry, I began volunteering at the Poetry and Literature Center at the Library of Congress. I helped pass out flyers at …

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Mona Van Duyn and the Women of the Catbird Seat

Posted by: Caitlin Rizzo

Yesterday would have been the 92nd birthday of Mona Van Duyn, and what better way to commemorate her legacy as the first female Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry than to spend it celebrating the women to have held the position? Since an act of Congress changed the title of Consultant in Poetry to Poet Laureate …