April 21, 1998
Contact:
Yvonne French (202) 707-9191
Poet Laureate Consultant Robert Pinsky to Read at the Library of Congress May 7
Event Concludes Library's 1997-98 Literary Series
Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry Robert Pinsky will
close the 1997-98 literary series at the Library of Congress
with a reading from his work May 7 in the Montpelier Room on
the sixth floor of the James Madison Memorial Building, 101
Independence Ave. S.E. The reading will begin at 6:45 p.m.
Tickets and reservations are not required.
Mr. Pinsky teaches in the graduate creative writing
program at Boston University. He is the author of five
books of poetry: Sadness and Happiness (1975); An
Explanation of America (1979), awarded the Saxifrage Prize
as the year's best volume of poetry from a small or
university press; History of My Heart (1983), which won the
William Carlos Williams Prize; The Want Bone (1990); and The
Figured Wheel: New and Collected Poems, 1966-1996 (1996).
He is the translator of The Separate Notebooks, by
Czeslaw Milosz (1983). His verse translation of The Inferno
of Dante (1994) was awarded the Los Angeles Times Book Prize
in poetry and the Harold Morton Landon Translation Award,
given by the Academy of American Poets. He is also a
recipient of the 1996 Poetry Society of America's Shelley
Memorial Award.
Mr. Pinsky is the author of three collections of
essays: Landor's Poetry (1968), The Situation of Poetry
(1977), and Poetry and the World (1988). Having served as
poetry editor of The New Republic through much of the 1980s,
he is currently poetry editor of the weekly Internet
magazine Slate.
As Poet Laureate, Mr. Pinsky initiated the Favorite
Poem Project, which will result in a video and audio
archives of Americans reading aloud their favorite poems.
Favorite Poem is a major project of the library's
celebration of its bicentennial in the year 2000. "The
archive would be a record," he states, "at the end of the
century, of what we choose, and of what we do with our
voices and faces, when asked to say aloud a poem that we
love." Individuals interested in participating may write to
him at Boston University, Creative Writing Department, 236
Bay State Road, Boston, MA 02215, stating which poem they
would like to read or recite and why.
The Library of Congress will preserve in its unique
poetry archives the recordings of those readings that the
Poet Laureate selects.
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.
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 98-063
4/21/98
ISSN 0731-3527