The Association of Writers & Writing Programs’ 2011 Annual Conference and Bookfair will feature the history of Folger Poetry.
February 2-5, 2011
Washington, DC
Past Folger Poetry coordinators will host a panel discussion entitled “At The Doorstep of the Capitol: 42 Seasons of Folger Poetry,” as part of the 2011 AWP Conference. The event includes presentationsn and discussions between participants, as well as a Q&A session with attendees.
Since its founding in 1970 by Folger Shakespeare Library Director O.B. Hardison, Jr., Folger Poetry has provided a stage for contemporary poetry’s most eloquent voices. The program was renamed the O.B. Hardison Poery Series in 2010 in his honor.
Teri Cross Davis, Gigi Bradford, Libbie Rifkin, Jean Nordhaus, and Aurelie Sheehan talk about their role in keeping the series current, balancing the administrative and the creative, how the Folger Poetry Board was created and their role in sustaining the series, and what it takes for a poetry series to maintain and thrive in the hustle and bustle of the nation’s capital.
The poetry program at Folger Shakespeare Library has hosted such notable poets as Gwendolyn Brooks, Sterling A. Brown, Lucille Clifton, Allen Ginsberg, Robert Hass, Edward Hirsch, W.S. Merwin, E. Ethelbert Miller, Sharen Olds, John Updike, Derek Walcott. For a full listing of past readings, click here.
Each year, the AWP Annual Conference is held in a different region of North America, and therefore celebrates the authors, teachers, writing programs, and literary centers of the respective local area. Over the four days of events, the conference hosts over 350 presentations attended by nearly 8,000 individuals and 500 publishers. Learn more about Association of Writers and Writing Programs.
