March 7, 1996

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

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Poets Galway Kinnell and Sharon Olds To Read at the Library of Congress

On Thursday evening, March 28, poets Galway Kinnell and Sharon Olds will read from their work in the Montpelier Room on the sixth floor of the James Madison Memorial Building. The reading, presented under the auspices of the Gertrude Clarke Whittall Poetry and Literature Fund, will begin at 6:45 p.m.; Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry Robert Hass will introduce them. Tickets are not required.

Galway Kinnell, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and the American Book Award for his Selected Poems (1982), is the author of 12 collections of poetry, most recently Imperfect Thirst (1994). He is on the faculty of New York University, where he is Erich Maria Remarque Professor of Creative Writing. He splits his time between New York City and Vermont.

Sharon Olds was born in San Francisco and educated at Stanford University and Columbia University. Her poetry has won both the Lamont Poetry Selection and the National Book Critics Circle Award. She teaches poetry workshops in the Graduate Writing Program at New York University and in the NYU workshop program at Goldwater Hospital on Roosevelt Island in New York. Her collections of poetry include Satan Says (1980), The Dead and the Living (1984), The Gold Cell (1987), and The Father (1992).

The poetry and literature reading series at the Library of Congress is the oldest in the Washington area, and one of the oldest in the United States. This annual series of public poetry and fiction readings, lectures, symposia, and occasional dramatic performances began in the 1940s and has been almost exclusively supported since 1951 by a gift from the late Gertrude Clarke Whittall, who wanted to bring the enjoyment and appreciation of good literature to a larger audience. The Poetry and Literature Center, which administers the 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. 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 Poet Laureate suggests authors to read in the literary series, plans other special literary events during the reading season, and usually introduces the programs.

Interpreting services (American Sign Language, Contact Signing, Oral and 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 please contact the Disability Employment Program office at (202) 707-9948 TTY and (202) 707-7544 voice.

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PR 96-41
3/7/96
ISSN 0731-3527