Joy Harjo Named U.S. Poet Laureate

    By artappraiser on Wed, 06/19/2019 - 6:47pm |

    @ Poets & Writers, June 19

    Today the Library of Congress announced that Joy Harjo will be the next U.S. poet laureate. Harjo, who is a member of the Muscogee Creek Nation, is the first Native American poet to serve as laureate. She will begin her term on September 19, succeeding poet Tracy K. Smith.

    “Joy Harjo has championed the art of poetry—‘soul talk’ as she calls it—for over four decades,” said Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden in a press release. “To her, poems are ‘carriers of dreams, knowledge and wisdom,’ and through them she tells an American story of tradition and loss, reckoning and myth-making. Her work powerfully connects us to the earth and the spiritual world with direct, inventive lyricism that helps us reimagine who we are.”

    Harjo is the author of several poetry collections, most recently Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings (Norton, 2015) [....]

    Latest Comments