March 1, 1999 Poets Stuart Dischell and Brenda Hillman To Read Their Poems at the Library of Congress

Poets Stuart Dischell and Brenda Hillman will read from their work at the Library of Congress at 6:45 p.m. March 25 in the Mumford Room on the sixth floor of the James Madison Memorial Building, 101 Independence Ave. S.E. Tickets are not required for the program, which is sponsored by the Gertrude Clarke Whittall Poetry and Literature Fund.

Mr. Dischell is the author of Good Hope Road (Viking, 1993), a National Poetry Series Selection, and Evenings & Avenues (Penguin, 1996). He teaches in the Program in Creative Writing at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. In 1996 he received a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Ms. Hillman teaches writing at St. Mary's College in Moraga, Calif. She is the author of the poetry collections White Dress (1985), Fortress (1989), Bright Existence (1992), Death Tractates (1992) and Loose Sugar (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.

The 1997-1999 Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry, Robert Pinsky, is the award-winning translator of The Inferno of Dante and a creative writing professor at Boston University. As part of the Library's Bicentennial, Mr. Pinsky is selecting a broad cross section of Americans reading their favorite poems aloud. In the year 2000, when the Library celebrates its 200th birthday, Mr. Pinsky will present 200 video and 1,000 audio tapes of these readings to the Archive of Recorded Poetry and Literature as one of the Library's birthday gifts to the nation. These readings will augment the already existing Archive of Recorded Poetry and Literature, which has recordings of 2,000 poets and authors reading their work. Among them are Robert Penn Warren, Robert Frost, Maxine Kumin and Gwendolyn Brooks.

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.