February 23, 2000 William Jay Smith to Read His Poems at the Library of Congress March 16

On Thursday evening, March 16, poet William Jay Smith will give a reading at the Library of Congress. The program, which is presented under the aegis of the Gertrude Clarke Whittall Poetry and Literature Fund, will be at 6:45 p.m. in the Mumford Room on the sixth floor of the James Madison Memorial Building. Tickets are not required. Mr. Smith was Library of Congress Consultant in Poetry from 1968 to 1970.

Author of more than 50 books of poetry, children's verse, literary criticism, translation, and memoirs, and editor of several anthologies, William Jay Smith served as Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress (the position now called Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry) from 1968 to 1970. His collections of poetry include The World Below the Window: Poems 1937-1997 (1998), The Cherokee Lottery (1997), The Traveler's Tree (1980), The Tin Can (1966), American Primitive (1957), and Celebration at Dark (1950). Two of his 10 collections of poetry were final contenders for the National Book Award. His translations have won awards from the French Academy, the Swedish Academy, and the Hungarian government.

Poet-in-residence at Williams College from 1959 to 1967 and chairman of the Writing Division of the School of the Arts at Columbia University from 1973 to 1975, Mr. Smith is Professor Emeritus of English at Hollins College. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters since 1975 and its former Vice President for Literature, he divides his time between Cummington, Massachusetts and Paris.