The National Book Festival’s 25th edition returns to D.C. on September 6 with a stellar list of novelists, historians, poets, young-adult and childrens authors, more than 90 in all. You’ll see novelists such as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Scott Turow and Jess Walter; non-fiction authors such as Ron Chernow, Jill Lepore and Geraldine Brooks; and Academy …
U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón's final lecture last week in the Coolidge Auditorium was a love letter to poetry to libraries and librarians. Her lecture, titled “Against Breaking: On the Public and Private Power of Poetry,” framed poetry as a shared, not solitary, experience and as a celebration of humanity’s range of voices and perspectives.
Sarah Josepha Hale was a prominent magazine editor, abolitionist and social activist throughout most of the 19th century, perhaps best known for composing the children's nursery rhyme, "Mary Had a Little Lamb." But her most long-lasting effort was her years-long campaign to get the federal government to designate Thanksgiving as a federal holiday. Her decisive tactic? A letter to President Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War.
NASA's Europa Clipper has set sail for a moon of Jupiter to explore the possibilies of life. Launced last week, the craft carries a metal vault plate inscribed with the poem “In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa,” by Ada Limón, the national poet laureate. NASA, Limón and the Library invited people worldwide to sign on to the poem and send their names to space with it on a microchip. More than 2.6 million people did so. Their names, alongside the poem, are aboard the Clipper for a six year journey to Europa.
Edgar Allan Poe died 175 years ago today, on Oct. 7, 1849. Here, we revisit the first publication of his poetic masterpiece, "The Raven" and the tragic circumstances (his dying young wife) that led to him writing it.
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.
The Library's 2024 National Book Festival will be August 24, featuring writers and personalities across the humanities including James McBride, Renee Fleming, James Patterson, Marie Arana and many others.
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.
Volunteers have been working over the past five years to transcribe the Library’s manuscripts of Walt Whitman, one of the nation’s most iconic poets, from three major collections. Can you help proofread the final 4,000 pages? This June, the Library is hoping you'll do just that as we celebrate Pride month.
