Entries from L I T T O R A L | the journal of the Key West Literary Seminar tagged with 'Poets Laureate'
Billy Collins | Dear Reader
Billy Collins talks about his intimate relationship to the reader.
28th Seminar begins on January 7
An unprecedented assembly of American poets will gather for the 28th annual Key West Literary Seminar, January 7-10, 2010. "Clearing the Sill of the World: a celebration of 60 years of American poetry" will feature seven United States Poets Laureate.
<i>The Pleasures of Disorientation:</i> <br>a conversation with Billy Collins
Billy Collins is a two-term United States Poet Laureate, New York State Poet, and the author of eight collections of poetry. With the Library of Congress, he established Poetry 180, a teaching aid for high school students founded on the belief that "poems can inspire and make us think about what it means to be a member of the human race." His newest book, <em>Ballistics</em>, has spent nearly a year on the Poetry Foundation's best sellers list, where his previous book, <em>The Trouble with Poetry</em>, has now appeared for more than 120 consecutive weeks.<br> <br> In this interview, conducted over the course of several emails this summer, Collins talks about his poetic rivals, the theories of John Keats and T.S. Eliot, trumpeter and singer Chet Baker, the importance of keeping secrets in poetry, and the pleasures of disorientation.
Robert Pinsky to give Keynote at KWLS 28
Three-time United States Poet Laureate <a href="http://www.kwls.org/lit/2010/bio.cfm?auth_id=193">Robert Pinsky</a> has been named the keynote speaker for the 28th annual Key West Literary Seminar. Pinsky will deliver the John Hersey Memorial Address on Thursday, January 7, 2010, to kick off <em>Clearing the Sill of the World</em>, a celebration of 60 years of American poetry that will feature a total of eight Poets Laureate, including current Laureate Kay Ryan, Rita Dove, Billy Collins, and our guest of honor Richard Wilbur<em>.</em><br> <br> As Poet Laureate from 1997-2000, Pinsky founded the <a href="http://www.favoritepoem.org/" target="_blank">Favorite Poem Project</a>, an enormously popular initiative dedicated to celebrating, documenting, and encouraging poetry's role in Americans' lives. This unique project resulted in a series of video documentaries showcasing individual Americans reading and speaking personally about poems they love, as well as an anthology, <em>Americans' Favorite Poems</em>, that is now in its 18th printing. In addition to this project, Pinsky has championed poetry's presence in American life with columns in <em>The Washington Post</em> and <em>Slate</em>, television appearances on <em>The Simpsons</em> and <em>The Colbert Report</em>, and videos on internet outlets including YouTube and BigThink. He is the author of seven collections of poetry, most recently <em>Gulf Music</em>; collections of essays including the National Book Critics' Circle Award-nominated <em>Poetry and the World</em>; and translations including the work of Polish poet Czeslaw Milosz and a landmark version of Dante's <em>Inferno</em> which received the <em>Los Angeles Times</em> Book Award in poetry and the Howard Morton Landon Prize for translation.
Rita Dove is 8th Laureate to Join KWLS 28
We are delighted to announced the addition of Rita Dove to our roster of speakers for the Key West Literary Seminar next January. Dove joins current United States Poet Laureate Kay Ryan, and past Laureates Billy Collins, Charles Simic, Robert Pinsky, Maxine Kumin, and Mark Strand for our 28th annual event, intended as a celebration of 60 years of American poetry and a tribute to Richard Wilbur, himself a former Laureate.
From the Nets
Purse seine boats fishing for menhaden. Photo by Robert K. Brigham, courtesy NOAA's Fisheries Collection. On our way to the sill of the world, we've been trolling. Here's what we're catching: • KWLS 28 will feature six past U.S. Poets...
Richard Wilbur: 1993 <br>A Reading in Tribute to Elizabeth Bishop
The 1993 Key West Literary Seminar, devoted to the work of Elizabeth Bishop, featured a series of readings-in-tribute. In this recording, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Richard Wilbur reads Bishop's "Little Exercise." Originally published in her debut 1946 collection <em>North and South</em>, the poem ostensibly describes a thunderstorm "roaming the sky" over the mangrove islands, boulevard, herons, and sleeping indigents characteristic of Key West, a place each poet called home. Wilbur also reads his translation of "Song," by Vinícius de Moraes, the Brazilian poet and Bossa Nova pioneer who was the songwriting partner of Antônio Carlos Jobim for many of João Gilberto's hits.
Billy Collins: 2003
This recording was made in January of 2003, during Billy Collins's second term as Laureate. He reads a selection of poems, including "Shoveling Snow With Buddha," "Monday," "Flock," "Creatures," "The Lanyard," "The Country," "Surprise," "No Time," "Love," "Sonnet," "Japan," "Forgetfulness," "Consolation," "On Turning Ten," and "Nightclub."
KWLS 28 to Feature 7 U.S. Poets Laureate
<em>Clearing the sill of the world</em>, the 28th annual Key West Literary Seminar, will feature a cast of poets including seven past and present United States Poets Laureate. The office, appointed annually by the Librarian of Congress since 1937, exists to "raise the national consciousness to a greater appreciation of the reading and writing of poetry," and serve as "the nation's official lightning rod for the poetic impulse of Americans."
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