Poetry at the Folger

For more than four decades, Folger Poetry at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., has been offering readings and moderated discussions with such well-known and honored poets as Rita Dove, Seamus Heaney, Denise Levertov, W.S. Merwin, and Adrienne Rich. In addition to sponsoring eight to 10 poetry events, including book signings, Folger Poetry presents annual special events: a Sonnet Contest, the O.B. Hardison Jr. Poetry Prize Reading, and The Emily Dickinson Birthday Tribute Reading, complete with a cake made from Dickinson's recipe for "black cake". It also operates the Poetry in Schools program and Shakespeare's Sisters, a 10-week seminar that introduces high school students to women who were poets in Shakespeare's time.

Poet Edward Hirsch kicked off this season's lineup of distinguished poets. The poets who will be completing the 2010-2011 series are:

✦ Matthew Ladd and Rosanna Warren, October 19 — Ladd was awarded the 2009 Anthony Hecht Poetry Prize for The Book of Emblems (Waywiser Press, October 2010). Rosanna Warren's Stained Glass (W.W. Norton, 1994) was awarded a Lamont Poetry Prize (formerly, Lamont Poetry Selection). She published Fables of the Self: Studies in Lyric Poetry (W.W. Norton) in 2008.

✦ Vera Pavlova, November 8 — A best-selling poet in Russia, Pavlova published in 2009 If There Is Something to Desire; Steven Seymour's translation of the collection was published in January 2010.

✦ Lucia Perillo, December 14 — Perillo will deliver the Birthday Tribute for Emily Dickinson. She published Inseminating the Elephant (Copper Canyon Press) in 2009.

✦ Kevin Young, January 6 — Young's The Art of Losing: Poems of Grief & Healing (Bloomsbury) was issued this past March.

✦ Naomi Ayala, Valerie Martinez, and J. Michael Martinez, February 28 — Washington, D.C., resident Ayala has published Wild Animals on the Moon (Curbstone, 1997). In addition to Absence, Luminescent (Four Way Books, 2nd Ed. 2010; 1st Ed., 1999) and the forthcoming And They Called It Horizon: Santa Fe Poems (Sunstone Press, November 2010), Valerie Martinez has published Each and Her (University of Arizona Press, 2010), among other work. (Martinez was Santa Fe Poet Laureate from 2008 to 2010.) J. Michael Martinez is the author of heredities (Lousiana State University Press, 2010), an Academy of American Poets Walt Whitman Award winner. The evening's reading and discussion are co-sponsored by The Poetry Society of America and Letras Latinas.

✦ Mary Karr and Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon, March 21 — Memoirist Karr has published four poetry collections, including Sinners Welcome: Poems (HarperCollins, 2006). Clief-Stefanon's ]Open Interval[ (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2009) was a finalist for the 2009 National Book Award.

✦ Naomi Shihab Nye, April 11 — The prolific Naomi Shihab Nye was elected in January 2010 to the Board of Chancellors of the Academy of American Poets. Her much-praised 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East (Greenwillow Books, 2005; paperback) was a National Book Award finalist. Her most recent book is Time You Let Me In: 25 Poets Under 25 (Greenwillow Books, 2010).

✦ Robert Hass, May 16 — The poet's most recent collection is The Apple Trees at Olema: Selected Poems & Essays 1985-2009 (HarperCollins Press, 2010).

All the events are held in the Folger Elizabethan Theatre. Tickets are $15.00 per event. A virtual box office may be accessed here.

An audio archive for Folger Poetry is here.

The Folger's address is 201 East Capitol Street, S.E., Washington, D.C. 20003.