US Poet Laureate

Former U.S. Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera begins with English and Spanish readings from Akrílica (2022), trading languages with translator Farid Matuk. Together, they also read Herrera’s poem "i am not a paid protestor," which Herrera terms a "duo poem" for two voices in dialogue with one another. Herrera closes out the reading with poems and remarks about mass shootings, classical music, space exploration, and human suffering and connection.

U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón reads poems that center on the natural world, resilience, women's strength, and the interconnection of all living things. She reads from her books Lucky Wreck (2006), Sharks in the Rivers (2010), Bright Dead Things (2015), The Carrying (2018), and The Hurting Kind (2022). Limón closes with two poems written during her laureateship, commissioned by the National Climate Assessment and NASA.

Robert Pinsky reads poems published across thirty-five years, many of which engage with poetic and cultural ancestors. He opens with work collected in his Selected Poems (2011) before reading from his newest collection, Proverbs of Limbo (2024). Pinsky also reads two new poems that appeared in magazines around the time of this reading.

In this colloquium, Robert Pinsky answers audience questions on topics including the inspiration behind particular books and poems; his Favorite Poem Project; meter, rhyme, and music in 20th century poetry; and the cultural roots of conflict in American public life. The original questions are not included in the recording due to poor audio quality.

Robert Pinsky reads from his fourth book, The Want Bone (1990), alongside more recent poems that would appear in his fifth collection, The Figured Wheel: New and Collected Poems, 1966-1996 (1996). Many of the poems he reads consider the complex nature of ancestry, history, and the present they create.