February 2, 1996

Contact: Craig D'Ooge (202) 707-9189

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Arizona Center for Book To Host Poet Laureate Robert Hass

Robert Hass, the Library of Congress's eighth Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry, will read from his poetry on Sunday, March 24, in Phoenix at a program sponsored by the Arizona Center for the Book. The event, which is open to the public, will take place at 3 p.m. at the Wrigley Conference Center, 6001 24th Street, in Phoenix. For information and reservations, call (602) 265-2651, ext. 600.

Mr. Hass's appearance is part of the "Feast for the Mind" Authors Series sponsored by the Arizona center, which is one of the 30 state affiliates of the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress. Established in 1988, the Arizona Center for the Book's purpose is to stimulate public interest in books, reading, libraries, and literacy. It is a non profit organization with a volunteer board of directors that funds its projects through contributions from individuals, corporations, and foundations.

Robert Hass is a native of San Francisco and a professor of English at the University of California at Berkeley. He is the first Poet Laureate from a Western state. His first collection of poetry, Field Guide (1973), won the Yale Series of Younger Poets Award. His second collection, Praise (1979), won the William Carlos Williams Award, and his book of essays, Twentieth Century Pleasures (1984), won the National Book Critics Award for criticism. He has a special interest in translation, looking to Central Europe for his close collaboration with Polish poet Czeslaw Milosz and to Japan for his translations of the haiku master Matsuo Basho.

The position of Consultant in Poetry has existed since 1936, when the late Archer Huntington endowed the Chair of Poetry at the Library of Congress. Since then, many of the nation's most eminent poets have held the post.

For information about the national reading promotion program of the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress, call (202) 707-5221.

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PR 96-21
2/2/96
ISSN 0731-3527