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Category: Poetry

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Over the Wine-Dark Sea …

Posted by: Jennifer Gavin

Monday would have been the 100th birthday of a poet whose translation of Homer’s “The Odyssey” brought me one of the really memorable reading experiences of a lifetime. Robert S. Fitzgerald, who awoke to his interest in poetry at a high school in Springfield, Illinois and whose work translating Homer’s Greek into English – while …

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

… and Wonderful Wordsmiths!

Posted by: Jennifer Gavin

Saturday, Sept. 25 will mark the 10th anniversary of the Library of Congress National Book Festival – “A Decade of Words and Wonder.” If you’re among the hundreds of thousands of people who have attended the event in its first nine glorious years, or just want to know more about this celebration of books, the …

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

Iamb What I Am

Posted by: Jennifer Gavin

On Tuesday, April 20 at noon, 16 actors will appear at the Library of Congress’ Whittall Pavilion to deliver more world-famous iambic pentameter than you can shake a spear at. It’s the annual Shakespeare’s Birthday reading, a chapter in the “Poetry at Noon” series presented by the Library’s Poetry and Literature Center.  (It’s Shakespeare’s 446th.) …

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

Poet Laureate Shares Creative Process Virtually

Posted by: Matt Raymond

(The following is a guest post by my colleague Donna Urschel.) Did you ever wonder how the literary giants create their work?  Does it just pour out of them effortlessly?  Or is there some sort of magic trick? On April 1, master poet Kay Ryan, the 16th Poet Laureate of the United States, will provide …

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Burning Bright

Posted by: Jennifer Gavin

Art and science, and sometimes art and politics, mirror each other in times of rapid change. Robert Hughes made that case in his history of modern art – noting it moved from straight representation to pointillism, cubism, and abstraction as science checked off its discoveries of the 20th Century, such as X-rays and the structure …

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

By the Time We Got to Bookstock …

Posted by: Jennifer Gavin

Right now, here and there all over the world, people are sitting down with a good book and enjoying a good read. Sprawled on the lawn, curled up on the sofa, sitting on the steps in the piazza — they’re communing with a great author, or a funny author, or an author who’s telling them …

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

But Wait … There's More!

Posted by: Jennifer Gavin

This year’s Library of Congress National Book Festival already promises the biggest lineup of literary stars this side of the Crab Nebula. Book-lovers can look forward, on Saturday, Sept. 26, to hearing from David Baldacci, John Grisham, John Irving, Julia Alvarez, Judy Blume, Ken Burns, Gwen Ifill and Jodi Picoult–not to mention celebrity chef Paula …