November 16, 1998

Contact:
Contact: Yvonne French (202) 707-9191
Public Contact: Poetry and Literature Center (202) 707-5394

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John Hollander and Alan Williamson To Read Their Poems at the Library of Congress

Poets John Hollander and Alan Williamson will read from their work at the Library of Congress at 6:45 p.m. December 3 in the Montpelier Room on the sixth floor of the James Madison Memorial Building, 101 Independence Ave. S.E. Tickets are not required. The reading is presented under the auspices of the Gertrude Clarke Whittall Poetry and Literature Fund.

John Hollander's first book of poems, A Crackling of Thorns, was chosen by W.H. Auden as the 1958 volume in the Yale Series of Younger Poets. He is the author of 15 subsequent collections, his most recent is Tesserae, and Other Poems (1993). He is also the author of four works of criticism, including Rhyme's Reason and The Figure of Echo, and the editor of many anthologies. Mr. Hollander has taught at Connecticut College, Yale University, Hunter College and the Graduate Center, CUNY. He is currently A. Bartlett Giamatti Professor of English at Yale University. In 1990 he was made a Fellow of the MacArthur Foundation.

Alan Williamson's most recent collection of poetry is The Muse of Distance (1998). Other books of poetry include Presence (1983), Love and the Soul (1995), and Res Publica and Other Poems (1998). He is also the author of Eloquence and Mere Life: Essays on the Art of Poetry (1994). He is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship and a Guggenheim fellowship. Mr. Williamson is professor of English at the University of California, Davis, and has also taught at the University of Virginia and Harvard and Brandeis universities.

The Poetry and Literature Center, which administers the poetry series, is also the home of the Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry, a position that has existed since 1936, when the late philanthropist Archer M. Huntington endowed the Chair of Poetry at the Library of Congress. Archibald MacLeish, who was Librarian from 1939 to 1944, determined the Consultant in Poetry should be an annual appointment. Since then, many of the nation's most eminent poets have served as Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress and, after the passage of Public Law 99-194 in 1985, as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry. The 1997-1999 Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry, Robert Pinsky, is the award-winning translator of The Inferno of Dante and a creative writing professor at Boston University. He suggests authors to read in the literary series, plans other special events during the literary season, and usually introduces the programs.

Interpreting services (American Sign Language, Contact Signing, Oral and/or Tactile) will be provided if requested five business days in advance of the event. Call (202) 707- 6362 TTY and voice to make a specific request. For other ADA accommodations, contact the Disability Employment office at (202) 707-9948 TTY and (202) 707-7544 voice.

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PR 98-187
11/16/98
ISSN 0731-3527