Monday Muse: Poetry at the Folger

Now in its 46th season, the O.B. Hardison Poetry Series at Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D.C., offers a full slate of readings by contemporary poets. The season's overall theme is "Poetry as Illumination".

The 2014-2015 fall-spring program begins on Monday, September 15, when Poet Lore, a publication of The Writer's Center, celebrates its 125th anniversary as our oldest poetry magazine. Joining the celebration, titled "125 Years of Literary Discovery", are four stellar poets: Traci Brimhall (Our Lady of the Ruins, 2012, and Rookery, 2010), Cornelius Eady (Hardheaded Weather: New and Selected Poems, 2008), Terrance Hayes (Lighthead, 2010), and Linda Pastan (Traveling Light, 2012). The Poet Lore's editors Jody Bolz and E. Ethelbert Miller make the introductions, beginning at 7:30 p.m. in Folger Elizabethan Theatre.

The remainder of the season is as follows:

✦ Monday, September 29, 7:30 p.m. ~ During "Here and Now" in the Folger Elizabethan Theatre, Stephen Dunn talks with moderator and poet Alan King. Dunn has published some 17 poetry collections, of which the most recent is Lines of Defense (2014). Dunn's 2000 collection Different Hours (2013) won a Pulitzer Prize and other honors.

✦ Monday, October 20, 7:30 p.m. ~ A trio of poets is scheduled to appear for "Writing from the Edge: 40th Anniversary of Graywolf": Matthea Harvey, who earlier this year published her fifth collection If the Tabloids Are True What Are You? (2014); Claudia Rankine, author, most recently, of the forthcoming Citizen: An American Lyric (October 2014); and Vijay Seshadri, 2014 Pulitzer Prize winner for 3 Sections (2013, available  in hardcover and as an e-book). Seshadri's The Long Meadow (2004, paperback 2005) received the James Laughlin Award of the Academy of American Poets. Poet and critic Stephen Burt (Belmont, 2013) moderates. Note: This program will be held at Lutheran Church of the Reformation, 212 East Capitol Street, N.E., Washington, D.C.

✦ Monday, November 17, 7:30 p.m. ~ The ninth Anthony Hecht Prize* winner Geoffrey Brock (Voices Bright Flags, forthcoming this fall) and 1998 O.B. Hardison Poetry Prize winner and 2009 MacArthur Fellow Heather McHugh (2009's Upgraded to Serious, 2004's Eyeshot, 1994's Hinge & Sign: Poems 1968-1993) make presentations. The evening, held in Folger Elizabethan Theatre and co-hosted by The Waywiser Press, which awards the Hecht Prize annually, includes editor-in-chief Philip Hoy.

* Submissions for the 10th Anthony Hecht Poetry Prize are due December 1.

✦ Monday, December 8, 7:30 p.m. ~ Rafael Campo headlines the evening, which is co-sponsored by the Poetry Society of America and represents the Emily Dickinson Birthday Tribute in Folger Elizabethan Theatre. Among Campo's half-dozen poetry collections are Alternative Medicine (2013). During the day Dickinson's poetry will be read at the Library of Congress; after Campo's reading, black cake, made from Dickinson's own recipe, will be served at the reception.

✦ Tuesday, February 3, 7:30 p.m. ~ Britain's Simon Armitage, whose collections include Stanza Stones (2014), and Peter Oswald, who most recently published The Reply to Light (2012) and is a playwright and actor, meet for conversation about "Drama and Verse" in Folger Elizabethan Theatre with Paul Smith, director, British Council USA. 

✦ Thursday, February 19, 6:30 p.m. ~ Pulitzer Prize and National Book Critics Circle Award winner Rae Armantrout, author of a dozen poetry collections, including Just Saying (2013) and Versed (2010), appears at The Phillips Collection, which is co-sponsoring "Human Equations at The Phillips Collection with Rae Armantrout". Following Armantrout's reading and conversation with Guy Raz of NPR's TED Radio Hour, ticket-holders may view the museum's exhibition "Man Ray — Human Equations", on view from February 7 through May 10, 2015.

✦ Monday, March 16, 7:30 p.m. ~ The evening is given over to a bilingual reading with Polish poet Adam Zagajewski and his translator Clare Cavanagh. A conversation follows with Edward Hirsch, author of Gabriel: A Poem (2014) and The Living Fire: New and Selected Poems (2011). "Mother Tongue: Poetry in Translation" takes place in Folger Elizabethan Theatre.

✦ Tuesday, May 19, 7:30 p.m. ~ Appearing for the Folger Poetry Board Reading is former U.S. Poet Laureate (1993-1995) and Pulitzer Prize winner (1987) Rita Dove. Dove's most recently published collections are Sonata Mulattica (2010) and American Smooth (2006). The evening is moderated by Guy Raz.

Unless otherwise noted, the poetry readings are ticketed; some discounts, as for students, are offered. Normally $15.00 per reading, a subscription to all nine is available for $90. The events include receptions and book signings.

Anther noteworthy event is on the fall schedule:

✦ "Poets Respond", beginning at 6:00 p.m., on Friday, November 21 (Free) ~ Local D.C.-area poets Joshua Weiner and Hayes Davis read poetry, including original work, that responds to William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar.

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