This is a guest blog interview was submitted to the Hispanic Division by patrons Anna Deeny Morales and Nelcy Denice Ávila. It offers context on The Gabriela Mistral Youth Poetry Competition as a legacy to this Chilean poet, who was the first Latin American writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1945.
Hispanic Division Junior Fellows explore the PALABRA Archive of recorded writers to learn more about Bolivian and Maya writers and poets and the value of diverse cultures and languages within the Library of Congress.
The Hispanic Division hosts Junior Fellows Summer Interns who are creating data visualizations of the collections and the indigenous reaction to the Spanish conquest, and expanding access to Latin American, Spanish, Portuguese, and Latinx writers.
In 1911, Jewish children in the Russian Empire woke up to find a Tom Thumb of their own, a Hebrew Tom Thumb of the greatest charm imaginable, and written, moreover, by that greatest of modern Hebrew poets, Chaim Nachman Bialik (1873-1934). Bialik's "Etsba'oni" first appeared in the pages of Ha-Shahar [The Dawn], one of a growing number of Hebrew periodicals created specifically for children in the early decades of the 20th century, especially in Eastern Europe and Russia. The Library of Congress has an almost complete run of the periodical from its seven months of existence, covers included.
A collection of Afghan lithographic books is now accessible online as part of the Persian Rare Language Material collection on the Library of Congress’ website.
