Poetry and Literature News

Tuesday, October 16, 4:00 PM
INTERNATIONAL LITERATURE: CRISTINA RIVERA GARZA

Novelist Cristina Rivera Garza will read excerpts of her work and participate in a moderated discussion with her translators Suzanne Jill Levine and Aviva Kana. This event is free and open to the public. No tickets required. Co-sponsored by the Hispanic Division of the Library of Congress. Presented in partnership with the Mexican Cultural Institute.

Location: Whittall Pavilion, ground floor, Thomas Jefferson Building <view map>
Contact: (202) 707-5394

Please click here for more information.

Thursday, September 13, 6:00 PM
ASIAN AMERICAN LITERATURE TODAY: KUNDIMAN SPOTLIGHT

Kundiman fellows R.O. Kwon and Hieu Minh Nguyen will read excerpts of their work followed by a moderated discussion with poet Gowri K. The event is free and open to the public. Presented in partnership with the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, The Asian American Literary Review, and Kundiman.

Location: Mumford Room, sixth floor, James Madison Building <view map>
Contact: (202) 707-5394

Please click here for more information. 

Thursday, September 13, 6:00 PM
ASIAN AMERICAN LITERATURE TODAY: KUNDIMAN SPOTLIGHT

Kundiman fellows R.O. Kwon and Hieu Minh Nguyen will read excerpts of their work followed by a moderated discussion with poet Gowri K. The event is free and open to the public. Presented in partnership with the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, The Asian American Literary Review, and Kundiman.

Location: Mumford Room, sixth floor, James Madison Building <view map>
Contact: (202) 707-5394

Please click here for more information. 

Thursday, August 30, 4:00 PM
NATIONAL STUDENT POETS PROGRAM APPOINTMENT CEREMONY

Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden and Institute of Museum and Library Services Director Kathryn K. Matthew will appoint the seventh class of National Student Poets, five outstanding youth poets from across the United States, for their original work. Program to include a plaque ceremony and poetry reading. Public reception to follow. Free tickets required. Presented in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers.

Location: Mumford Room, sixth floor, James Madison Building
Contact: (202) 707-5394

Please click here for more information. The event will also be livestreamed on the Library’s Facebook page at facebook.com/libraryofcongress and its YouTube site at youtube.com/loc.

Saturday, June 30, 2018

LA VOZ LATINA—THE LATIN VOICE IN THE AMERICAS: A SPLENDID DIVERSITY

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, in collaboration with the Hispanic Division and the Poetry and Literature Center of the Library of Congress, presents a series of programs on Latin American and Hispanic American literature. Events are free and open to the public. Free tickets are required and will be distributed 30 minutes prior to the event in front of the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater.

11:00 AM: HARLEM TO HAVANA—Langston Hughes and Nicolas Guillen: Two Poets, Two Worlds, One Friendship

Featuring Cuban American playwright Jorge Ignacio Cortiñas (Sleepwalkers and Maleta Mulata) and Pulitzer Prize–winning U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey, this is a re-enactment of the friendship and literary collaboration between two great jazz-age poets, Cuban Nicolás Guillén and American Langston Hughes. Cortiñas and Trethewey will present the poets’ verses, correspondence, and anecdotes, as well as talk about their influence on their own art. Learn more on the Kennedy Center website

2:00 PM: LA VOZ LATINA—Six Literary Stars of the Americas

Six of the most eclectic and revered Latino writers from the Americas—North and South—talk about their work, their inspiration, and their enormously diverse cultures, moderated by writer and critic Marie Arana, along with writer Ruth Behar. Featured are the legendary Mexican American writer Sandra Cisneros, Chilean American playwright and novelist Ariel Dorfman, Bolivian novelist and essayist Rodrigo Hasbún, Peruvian journalist and novelist Santiago Roncagliolo, and Puerto Rican American novelist and memoirist Esmeralda Santiago. Learn more on the Kennedy Center website

Location: Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Contact: (202) 467-4600

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Thursday, April 19, 7:00 PM
STAYING HUMAN: POETRY IN THE AGE OF TECHNOLOGY

22nd U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith will celebrate the conclusion of her first term as laureate in a conversation with Ron Charles, editor of Washington Post’s Book World and host of the Library’s “Life of a Poet” series. This event is free and open to the public. Tickets are required via Eventbrite. Book sales and signing will follow.

Location: Coolidge Auditorium, ground floor, Thomas Jefferson Building <view map>
Contact: (202) 707-5394

This event will be livestreamed via YouTube and Facebook. 

Friday, April 13, 2018, 9:00 AM – 6:30 PM
LEGACY OF CHILEAN AND LATIN AMERICAN POETRY SYMPOSIUM

This symposium will bring together poets and literary scholars from Latin America and the United States to consider the dynamic emergence, development, and diversity of poetic forms throughout the Americas, with an emphasis on Chile. It will also be presented to recognize Georgetown University Professor Gwen Kirkpatrick for her scholarship in the field of Latin American poetry, her contributions to the university, and her profound dedication to her students. 

Full event schedule and tickets available via Eventbrite. 

Co-sponsored by the Library of Congress Hispanic Division, the Embassy of Chile, Georgetown University, George Washington University, the University of Maryland, the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, and the Universidad de Chile.

Location: Montpelier Room, sixth floor, James Madison Building <view map>
Contact: cgom@loc.gov

PROGRAM

9:00 AM — WELCOME

• Georgette Dorn, Chief, Hispanic Division, Library of Congress
• Julio Fiol, Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of Chile
• Anna Deeny Morales, Center for Latin American Studies, Georgetown University

9:15 AM TO 10:25 AM — POETIC GENEALOGIES IN LATIN AMERICA

MODERATOR: FELIPE ESTEBAN TORO FRANCO, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY

• Alvaro Kaempfer, Gettysburg College: “Poesía, tradición cultural y razón pública en la crítica literaria de Andrés Bello”
• Sarah Moody, University of Alabama: “María Eugenia Vaz Ferreira, Delmira Agustini, and the Impossible Life and Legacy of the Woman Poet in Modernismo”
• Vivaldo Andrade dos Santos, Georgetown University: "Carlos Drummond de Andrade and the Flaming Tie of Neruda: Echoes of Canto general in A Rosa do Povo by CDA (1945)”

10:30 AM TO 12:30 PM — POETIC LANGUAGE

MODERATOR: VERONICA SALLES-REESE, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY

• Soledad Bianchi, Universidad de Chile: “Bolaño, poeta: ‘He aprendido de los caminos donde me he extraviado’ ”
• Rodrigo Cánovas, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile: “Poesía y performance en el texto Naciste pintada, de Carmen Berenguer, escrito desde el fin de siglo chileno”
• Francine Masiello, University of California, Berkeley: “poesía, paisaje, amistad”
• Ana Inés Larre Borges, Biblioteca Nacional de Uruguay: “Dis/pares. Marosa di Giorgio versus Idea Vilariño”

2:00 PM TO 3:15 PM — POETRY, POLITICS, GENDER AND SEXUALITY

MODERATOR: GABRIEL VILLAROEL, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY

• Francisco Leal, Colorado State University: “Pablo Neruda, violador. Mujeres-estatuas en su poesía amorosa”
• Miguel López, University of New Mexico: “Marjorie Agosín and the Femicides”
• María José Navia, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile: “’Amo las cosas que nunca tuve / con las otras que ya no tengo’: leyendo a Gabriela Mistral desde el inventario.”

3:30 PM TO 5:00 PM — THE LEGACY OF GWEN KIRKPATRICK FOR THE STUDY OF CULTURE AND POETRY

MODERATOR: TANIA GENTIC, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY

• Emilie Bergman, University of California, Berkeley: “Snapshots, Afterimages and the Longvies: Gwen at Berkeley”
• Enrique Cortez, Portland State University: “Repensar la poesía más allá de las vanguardias: Lógica de la pregunta e historia literaria”
• Rocío Ferreira, DePaul University: “Los años en UC Berkeley. La poesía latinoamericana según Gwen Kirkpatrick”
• Laura Demaría, University of Maryland: “El legado de Gwen Kirkpatrick”

5:15 PM TO 6:30 PM — POETRY READING

INTRODUCTIONS BY ANNA DEENY MORALES

• Roberto Ibáñez Ricóuz
• Vivaldo Santos
• María José Navia
• Francisco Leal
• María Inés Zaldivar

Please click here for more information. 

Wednesday, March 28, 7:00 PM
STORIES FROM A FALLEN WORLD: A TRIBUTE TO DENIS JOHNSON

Authors Jonathan Franzen, Elliot Ackerman, Sam Quinones, and writer/producer Elizabeth Cuthrell will join writer and Library of Congress Literary Advisor Marie Arana to discuss intersections of war, addiction, and discontent in the work of Denis Johnson, 2017 Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction winner. Book sales and signing will follow. Tickets are required. Co-sponsored by the Library of Congress John W. Kluge Center.

Location: Coolidge Auditorium, ground floor, Thomas Jefferson Building <view map>
Contact: (202) 707-5394, poetry@loc.gov

These events will be livestreamed via YouTube and Facebook. 

Wednesday, March 28, 7:00 PM
STORIES FROM A FALLEN WORLD: A TRIBUTE TO DENIS JOHNSON

Authors Jonathan Franzen, Elliot Ackerman, Sam Quinones, and writer/producer Elizabeth Cuthrell will join writer and Library of Congress Literary Advisor Marie Arana to discuss intersections of war, addiction, and discontent in the work of Denis Johnson, 2017 Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction winner. Book sales and signing will follow. Tickets are required. Co-sponsored by the Library of Congress John W. Kluge Center.

Location: Coolidge Auditorium, ground floor, Thomas Jefferson Building <view map>
Contact: (202) 707-5394, poetry@loc.gov

These events will be livestreamed via YouTube and Facebook. 

Thursday, March 15, 6:30 PM
NATIONAL YOUTH POET LAUREATE CELEBRATION

2017 National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman and the 2018 National Youth Poet Laureate finalists will participate in a reading and moderated discussion with Michael Cirelli, executive director of Urban Word NYC. Special guest Jacqueline Woodson, National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, will give opening remarks. This event is free and open to the public. Co-sponsored by the Library of Congress Young Readers Center. Presented in partnership with Urban Word.

Location: Mumford Room, sixth floor, James Madison Building <view map>
Contact: (202) 707-5394

Please click here for more information.

Thursday, March 15, 6:30 PM
NATIONAL YOUTH POET LAUREATE CELEBRATION

2017 National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman and the 2018 National Youth Poet Laureate finalists will participate in a reading and moderated discussion with Michael Cirelli, executive director of Urban Word NYC. Special guest Jacqueline Woodson, National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, will give opening remarks. This event is free and open to the public. Co-sponsored by the Library of Congress Young Readers Center. Presented in partnership with Urban Word.

Location: Mumford Room, sixth floor, James Madison Building <view map>
Contact: (202) 707-5394

Please click here for more information.

Tuesday, February 27, 12:00 PM 
CONVERSATIONS WITH AFRICAN POETS AND WRITERS: BUSHRA AL-FADIL

2017 Caine Prize winner Bushra al-Fadil will read from his prize-winning short story, “The Story of the Girl Whose Birds Flew Away,” and participate in a moderated discussion with Africa Area Specialist in the African and Middle Eastern Division, Marieta Harper. This event is free and open to the public. Book sales and signing will follow. Co-sponsored by the Library of Congress African and Middle Eastern Division. Presented in partnership with The Africa Society of the National Summit on Africa, The Caine Prize for African Writing, and the Center for African Studies at Howard University.

Location: African and Middle Eastern Division Reading Room, LJ-220, Thomas Jefferson Building <view map>
Contact: (202) 707-5394

Please click here for more information.