Current US Poet Laureate Joy Harjo, the first Native American poet laureate, will read her poems at an event hosted by the Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library at Emory University on Saturday, March 20, 2021, at 4 p.m.
Due to ongoing COVID-19 restrictions, this annual spring poetry reading, normally a large in-person event, will be held online. After registering, attendees will receive a viewing link prior to the event.
Joy Harjo is an internationally renowned musician and writer of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. She became the 23rd poet laureate of the United States in 2019. She was recently appointed by the Library of Congress to a rare third term, to begin in September 2021.
Harjo is the author of nine books of poetry, among them “An American Sunrise,” “Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings,” “How We Became Human: New and Selected Poems,” and “She Had Some Horses,” and the editor of two anthologies, including the recently released “Living Nations, Living Words: An Anthology of First Peoples Poetry.” Harjo’s first memoir, “Crazy Brave,” won several awards, including the PEN USA Literary Award for Creative Nonfiction and the American Book Award; she is working on a follow-up memoir.
She is the recipient of the Ruth Lilly Prize for lifetime achievement from the Poetry Foundation, the Wallace Stevens Award from the Academy of American Poets for proven mastery in the art of poetry, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America, and the United States Artist Fellowship. She was inducted into the Oklahoma Writers Hall of Fame in 2014.
Harjo’s visit is hosted by the Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library and sponsored by the Hightower Fund, with support from the Emory Libraries, Emory College of Arts and Sciences, and the Creative Writing Program at Emory University.