December 12, 2000 Program to Honor Poet Elizabeth Bishop and Founding of Brazil

A program titled "The Poet and the Public: Elizabeth Bishop in the U.S. and Brazil" will take place on Thursday, December 28, from 4:30 to 6 p.m. in the Mumford Room, sixth floor, Library of Congress James Madison Memorial Building, 101 Independence Ave. S.E. The event is free and open to the public. The event is sponsored by the Office of Scholarly Programs in the Library of Congress and The Elizabeth Bishop Society.

The program honors the 500th anniversary of the founding of Brazil, as well as the 50th anniversary of Elizabeth Bishop's tenure as poetry consultant at the Library of Congress. Ms. Bishop (1911-1979), who lived in Brazil for many years, was poetry consultant from 1949 to 1950.

Participating in the program will be Brazilian author Carmen Olivera, author of Rare and Commonplace Flowers, a dual biography of Elizabeth Bishop and the Brazilian architect Lota de Macedo Soares, and Dana Gioia, author of a book of poems, Daily Horoscope, and Can Poetry Matter: Essays on Poetry and American Culture.