Audio interviews with several poets who have read at the Library of Congress are featured in "The Poet and the Poem at the Library of Congress" series. Two U.S. Poets Laureate and several Witter Bynner fellows are included. Distinguishing features of the show, which first aired on WPFW-FM radio in Washington, D.C., are the poets' discussions of craft and sources of inspiration with host Grace Cavalieri. The Witter Bynner Foundation for Poetry and the Humanities Council of Washington, D.C., sponsor "The Poet and the Poem from the Library of Congress."

The Poetry and Literature Center of the Library of Congress dates from 1936, when Archer M. Huntington endowed the Chair of Poetry at the Library. The center itself was founded in the 1940s and has been almost exclusively supported since 1951 by a gift from the late Gertrude Clarke Whittall, who wanted to bring the appreciation of good literature to a larger audience. For more information about poetry at the Library of Congress, visit www.loc.gov/poetry. The Library is also home to the Poet Laureate, whose official title is Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry. The incumbent and 13th person to hold the position is Ted Kooser, author of 10 collections of poetry, most recently "Delights & Shadows" (2004). Kooser was born in Ames, Iowa, in 1939. He earned his bachelor's degree at Iowa State University in 1962 and his master's degree at the University of Nebraska in 1968.