November 13, 2014 Library of Congress to Host Emily Dickinson Day Dec. 8

The Library of Congress Poetry and Literature Center, in conjunction with the Folger Shakespeare Library, will celebrate Emily Dickinson’s 184th birthday by hosting a marathon reading of the poet’s work.

Local and non-local poets, writers, critics and the general public will read chronologically from Dickinson’s poems. The day-long event will take place from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 8 in Room 119 on the first floor of the Thomas Jefferson Building, 10 First St. S.E., Washington, D.C. The program is free and open to the public. Tickets are not needed. For information about signing up to read, visit the Folger Shakespeare Library External.

The day-long reading expands the tradition of the Folger Shakespeare Library’s annual Emily Dickinson Birthday Tribute, which will be held at 7:30 p.m. on Dec. 8 in the Folger Elizabethan Theatre. The reading will feature poet Rafael Campo and other award-winning poets who will read Dickinson’s work and discuss the great significance of her legacy. Tickets are needed for the evening program, which is co-sponsored by the Poetry Society of America.

The Folger Shakespeare Library is home to the world’s largest Shakespeare collection and a primary repository for rare materials from the early-modern period (1500–1750). The Folger is an internationally recognized research library; an innovator in the preservation of rare materials; a national leader in how Shakespeare is taught in grades K–12; and an award-winning producer of cultural and arts programs. For more than 40 years, the Folger's poetry reading series has brought hundreds of distinguished poets to read from their work on the Folger stage. Beginning with the 2010–2011 season, it was renamed the O.B. Hardison Poetry reading series in honor of its founder, O.B. Hardison Jr.

The Library of Congress Poetry and Literature Center fosters and enhances the public's appreciation of literature. To this end, the center administers the endowed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry position, coordinates an annual season of readings, performances, lectures, conferences and symposia, and sponsors high-profile prizes and fellowships for literary writers. For more information, visit www.loc.gov/poetry/.

The Library of Congress, the nation’s oldest federal cultural institution and the largest library in the world, holds more than 158 million items in various languages, disciplines and formats. The Library serves the U.S. Congress and the nation both on-site in its reading rooms on Capitol Hill and through its award-winning website at www.loc.gov.