March 12, 1998

Press Contact: Yvonne French (202) 707-9191

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Poets Erin Belieu and Fanny Howe To Read at the Library of Congress

Poets Erin Belieu and Fanny Howe will read their poems at 6:45 p.m. on March 26 in the Mumford Room on the sixth floor of the James Madison Memorial Building, 101 Independence Ave. S.E. Tickets are not required.

Ms. Belieu was born in Omaha, Neb. She now lives in Cambridge, Mass., and is the managing editor of AGNI magazine. She is the author if Infanta, published in 1995 by Copper Canyon Press.

Ms. Howe was born in Buffalo, N.Y., and attended Stanford University. Currently professor of writing and American literature at the University of California, San Diego, she has been a lecturer in creative writing at Tufts University; Emerson College in Boston; and Columbia University, and was a visiting writer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Ms. Howe was also associated with the Massachusetts Poetry-in-the-Schools program and was a McDowell Colony fellow and a Bunting Institute fellow. She is the author of short stories, poetry, novels and children's books, among them Forty Whacks (1971), The White Slave (1980), In the Middle of Nowhere: A Novel (1984), Radio City (1984), The Vineyard (1988), and One Crossed Out (1997).

The Poetry and Literature Center, which administers the poetry 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. Archibald MacLeish, who was Librarian from 1939 to 1944, determined the Consultant in Poetry should be an annual appointment. 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.

Current Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky, award-winning translator of The Inferno of Dante and a creative writing professor at Boston University, suggests authors to read in the literary series, plans other special events during the literary season, and usually introduces the programs.

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

 

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PR 98-044
3/12/98
ISSN 0731-3527