Press Release

56th Annual Poetry Day with Frank Bidart

Acclaimed Poet to Read at Chicago’s Harold Washington Library

Originally Published: October 11, 2010

CHICAGO—The Poetry Foundation and Poetry magazine are pleased to present the 56th annual Poetry Day. Award-winning poet Frank Bidart will be the featured reader at the celebration in Chicago.

What:     56th Annual Poetry Day featuring Frank Bidart
When:    Thursday, October 14, 6:00 pm
Where:   Cindy Pritzker Auditorium
               Harold Washington Library Center
            
               400 South State Street
Tickets:  Free admission on a first-come, first-served basis

Initially influenced by T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound, and later by his teacher Robert Lowell, Frank Bidart has expanded the possibilities of poetry and established himself as one of the most original and compelling poets of his generation. Bidart is the author of eight critically acclaimed collections, including Desire, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award; Star Dust; and Watching the Spring Festival. Bidart received his second Pulitzer nomination for Music Like Dirt, the only chapbook ever to be so honored. He won the Poetry Society of America’s Shelley Memorial Award in 1997, the Wallace Stevens Award in 2000, and the Bollingen Prize in 2007. A past chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, Frank Bidart has taught at Wellesley College since 1972.

Inaugurated by Robert Frost in 1955, Poetry Day is one of the most distinguished poetry reading series in the country, featuring poets of note such as T.S. Eliot, Elizabeth Bishop, Carl Sandburg, W.H. Auden, Anne Sexton, John Ashbery, James Merrill, Adrienne Rich, Gwendolyn Brooks, Rita Dove, Billy Collins, Seamus Heaney, Derek Walcott, and Robert Hass.

For more information, please visit www.poetryfoundation.org.

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About Poetry
Founded in Chicago by Harriet Monroe in 1912, Poetry is the oldest monthly devoted to verse in the English-speaking world. Monroe’s “Open Door” policy, set forth in Volume 1 of the magazine, remains the most succinct statement of Poetry’s mission: to print the best poetry written today, in whatever style, genre, or approach. The magazine established its reputation early by publishing the first important poems of T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, Marianne Moore, Wallace Stevens, H.D., William Carlos Williams, Carl Sandburg, and other now-classic authors. In succeeding decades it has presented—often for the first time—works by virtually every major contemporary poet.

About the Poetry Foundation
The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine, is an independent literary organization committed to a vigorous presence for poetry in our culture. It exists to discover and celebrate the best poetry and to place it before the largest possible audience. The Poetry Foundation seeks to be a leader in shaping a receptive climate for poetry by developing new audiences, creating new avenues for delivery, and encouraging new kinds of poetry through innovative literary prizes and programs. For more information, please visit www.poetryfoundation.org.

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