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Category: Poetry

Wide shot of a woman looking up at a giant Redwood tree. The photo only shows the base of the tree, which is nearly 75 feet in circumference.

Ada Limón & Poetry in the National Parks!

Posted by: Neely Tucker

U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón kicked off her "You Are Here: Poetry in the Parks" project at several National Parks around the country this summer, from Cape Cod to California. With installations in the parks, she's hoping to showcase "the ways reading and writing poetry can situate us in the natural world." Her tour continues in October at Florida's Everglades National Park and at Arizona's Saguaro National Park in December.

Handwritten title page of an essay written on lined notebook paper.

Treasures Gallery: Surviving Hiroshima

Posted by: Neely Tucker

Haruo Shimizu, a Japanese schoolteacher, survived the United States’ bombing of Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945. One year later, he wrote down his memories of that horrific day for a friendly U.S. soldier stationed in Japan, who brought it home after his deployment. Today, it is one of the items featured in the new Treasures of the Library gallery.

Black and white studio portait of Louise Glück. She is seated in a chair, leaning slightly to the photo's right, her left hand cupping her chin, gazing intently at the camera.

Louise Glück, Nobel Prize Winner, Former U.S. Poet Laureate, Dies at 80

Posted by: Neely Tucker

Louise Glück, the poet whose often personal, always searching work won the Nobel Prize in 2020 and who served as the U.S. poet laureate for the Library in 2003-2004, has died at the age of 80. Here, we remember a night at the LIbrary in the spring of 1975, when she was a nervous young poet reading her work in an event at the Coolidge Auditorium.

Head and shoulders photo of Ada Limon. She is turned slightly to her right, looking to the right of the camera.

Ada Limón Gets Second Term as Poet Laureate

Posted by: Wendi Maloney

Ada Limón, named the U.S. Poet Laureate last year, will serve two more years, Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden has announced, making the California native the third laureate to serve for as long as three years. Limón is composing a poem that will be engraved on NASA's Europa Clipper mission. The spacecraft will travel 1.8 billion miles to explore Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons.

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

A Voice Among the Stars: Poem by U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón Will Ride to Europa on NASA Spacecraft

Posted by: Brett Zongker

U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón, who is known for work that explores the human connection to the natural world, is crafting a new poem dedicated to NASA’s Europa Clipper mission. Her poem, to be released in the coming months, will be engraved on the Europa Clipper spacecraft. It will travel 1.8 billion miles on its …