Oct 22nd, 2004 · Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Anthony Hecht died Wednesday of lymphoma at his house in Washington, D.C. NPR's Michele Norris comments on his poetry, and we'll listen to a 2003 recording of Hecht reading from his own work. (Editors note: The audio for this segment has been edited from the broadcast version due to rights issues)
Oct 19th, 2004 · In the 1950s, composer William Bolcom began an ambitious project to set the 46 poems in William Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience to music. A massive work, the result premiered in 1984. Now, a recording of Bolcom's work has finally been released. NPR's Jeffrey Freymann-Weyr reports.
Oct 11th, 2004 · Our political poets, Calvin Trillin and James Bowman, offer their take on Friday night's town hall-style presidential debate. Trillin is the author of Obliviously On He Sails: The Bush Administration in Rhyme. Bowman is a resident scholar at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington.
Aug 28th, 2004 · In the final installment of our summer series of poetry readings from the Sunken Garden Poetry Festival at Hillstead Museum in Connecticut, we hear a poem by Kate Rushin, author of "The Black Back-ups."
Aug 22nd, 2004 · NPR's Jennifer Ludden interviews Robert Hedin about the volume of poetry he edited: Old Glory: American War Poems from the Revolutionary War to the War on Terrorism. The editor says the body of literature reveals the nation's changing attitudes toward war. Hedin reads from several selections.
Jul 19th, 2004 · On her 89th birthday, the lauded American poet reflects on the joys and pains of life that have shaped her poetry. NPR's Melissa Block spends a day with Stone and her family at her farmhouse in Goshen, Vt.
Jul 18th, 2004 · Writer A. Van Jordan's latest poems imagine the life of MacNolia Cox, the first black finalist in the National Spelling Bee. In his book M-A-C-N-O-L-I-A, Jordan uses a variety of forms and voices to depict Cox's life in 1936. Hear NPR's Susan Stamberg and Jordan.
Jul 17th, 2004 · A Weekend Edition Saturday summer series of poetry readings continues from the Sunken Garden Poetry Festival at Hill-Stead Museum in Farmington, Conn. This week's feature writer is Joan Joffe Hall, who reads her poem, "Driver's License."