Fantastic Opening to the Literary Season at the Library of Congress

Juan Felipe Herrera conducts his inaugural reading as poet laureate at the Library of Congress in Washington. (Shawn Miller/Library of Congress)

The Washington Post published a great article on the fantastic lecture last week by the new poet laureate at the Library of Congress. Juan Felipe Herrera thus opened the literary season, which looks very exciting. He talked about some of the fabulous resources in the Hispanic Reading Room (see a previous post on these). The Post writer Ron Charles ended his article:

Herrera concluded the evening’s presentation by reading one of his own incantatory poems that ended, like magic, with these lines: 

“If I stood up wearing a robe in front of my familia and many more on the high steps of the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., and read out loud and signed my poetry book like this, ‘Poet Laureate of the United States of America,’ imagine what you could do.” 

What a trip — and it’s just beginning.

Here is some history behind the poet laureate position:

in 1937, when the Library began to establish a poetry presence in the Nation’s Capital, thanks to a gift from railroad heir Archer M. Huntington, who wrote poetry himself. Huntington funded the “Chair in English Poetry,” a position which evolved into “Poetry Consultant to the Library of Congress,” and finally, in 1987, into “Poet Laureate/Consultant to the Library”—or just, casually, US Poet Laureate. 

The Library of Congress is part of the vibrant worldwide poetry world and has a Poetry Office. Another reason that the Library of Congress is great!