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Louise Gluck new US poet laureate
Washington, Sept 03: Louise Gluck, winner of a Pulitzer Prize and a dozen other poetry awards, will be the next U.S. poet laureate. Librarian of Congress James H Billington announced the appointment.
Washington, Sept 03: Louise Gluck, winner of a Pulitzer Prize and a dozen other poetry awards, will be the next U.S. poet laureate. Librarian of Congress James H Billington announced the appointment.
Gluck (pronounced glick) has been an English professor at Williams College for 20 years. She has published nine volumes of poetry and in 1993 won a Pulitzer for The Wild Iris. Her latest work, October, is due this fall. Gluck, who shuns publicity, said her first undertaking in her new position will be "to get over being surprised." Then she will concentrate on promoting young poets and poetry contests, she said. "Her prize-winning poetry and her great interest in young poets will enliven the poet laureate's office," Billington said. Born in New York, Gluck studied at Columbia University and Sarah Lawrence College, earning a law degree from Williams College. She lives alone in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Gluck said she doesn't believe the poet laureate must create new programs. The incumbent, Billy Collins, started a Web site to furnish a poem a day for high school students. Gluck said a project to record Americans' favorite poems, begun by her friend and former poet laureate Robert Pinsky, could be taken further. Gluck's poetry often deals with women's problems and can be dark and foreboding. Loss and isolation are common themes. "Writing is not decanting of personality," she wrote in 1994 at the start of a volume of essays called "Proofs and Theories." "The truth, on the page, need not have been lived. It is, instead, all that can be envisioned."
The one-year poet laureate's job includes an office at the Library of Congress, a $35,000 salary and an obligation to deliver and organize readings. Previous poets laureate including Robert Frost, Gwendolyn Brooks and Rita Dove.
Gluck (pronounced glick) has been an English professor at Williams College for 20 years. She has published nine volumes of poetry and in 1993 won a Pulitzer for The Wild Iris. Her latest work, October, is due this fall. Gluck, who shuns publicity, said her first undertaking in her new position will be "to get over being surprised." Then she will concentrate on promoting young poets and poetry contests, she said. "Her prize-winning poetry and her great interest in young poets will enliven the poet laureate's office," Billington said. Born in New York, Gluck studied at Columbia University and Sarah Lawrence College, earning a law degree from Williams College. She lives alone in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Gluck said she doesn't believe the poet laureate must create new programs. The incumbent, Billy Collins, started a Web site to furnish a poem a day for high school students. Gluck said a project to record Americans' favorite poems, begun by her friend and former poet laureate Robert Pinsky, could be taken further. Gluck's poetry often deals with women's problems and can be dark and foreboding. Loss and isolation are common themes. "Writing is not decanting of personality," she wrote in 1994 at the start of a volume of essays called "Proofs and Theories." "The truth, on the page, need not have been lived. It is, instead, all that can be envisioned."
The one-year poet laureate's job includes an office at the Library of Congress, a $35,000 salary and an obligation to deliver and organize readings. Previous poets laureate including Robert Frost, Gwendolyn Brooks and Rita Dove.
Gluck, who is divorced and has a grown son, will take up her duties in the fall, beginning with a reading from her work on October 21.
Bureau Report