From the Catbird Seat: Poetry from the Library of Congress Podcast Library of Congress

This episode, the third and final in a special three-part series, chronicles Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith's travels to rural Kentucky in March 2018 as a pilot for her second-year project, 'American Conversations: Celebrating Poems in Rural Communities.' Rob Casper of the Poetry and Literature Center will reflect on the trip with help from Phillip Justice, Ashton Ricketts, and Maurice Manning. We'll also hear clips from one of Tracy K. Smith's Kentucky events, and close out the podcast series with reflections from Anya Creightney and our poet laureate herself.

This episode, the second in a special three-part series, chronicles Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith's travels to rural South Carolina in February 2018 as a pilot for her second-year project, "American Conversations: Celebrating Poems in Rural Communities." Rob Casper of the Poetry and Literature Center will reflect on the trip along with Tracy K. Smith, Congressman James Clyburn, and Ruth Franklin.

This episode, the first in a special three-part series, chronicles Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith's travels to rural New Mexico in January 2018 as a pilot for her second-year project, "American Conversations: Celebrating Poems in Rural Communities." Anya Creightney of the Poetry and Literature Center will reflect on the trip, and we'll hear from a few of the folks our poet laureate met on the road.

On the eighth episode of "From the Catbird Seat," former Poet Laureate Charles Wright speaks with Rob Casper about his term as poet laureate, and we listen to highlights from Wright's inaugural reading at the Library of Congress in September 2014.

On the seventh episode of "From the Catbird Seat," Rob Casper goes behind the scenes with Matthew Zapruder, editor at large of Wave Books and the former director of the Bagley Wright Lecture Series, about the six Bagley Wright lectures hosted at the Library of Congress between 2013 and 2016. The lecture series features leading mid-career poets as they explore, in-depth, their own thinking on the subject of poetry and poetics. We'll listen to three poets who delivered Bagley Wright lectures at the Library of Congress: Dorothea Lasky, Timothy Donnelly, and Terrance Hayes.

On the sixth episode of "From the Catbird Seat," Rob Casper chats with former Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera about his experience serving as a judge for the 2015 National Book Festival Youth Poetry Slam, and what established writers can learn from emerging writers. Then, we'll listen to clips from the 2015 Youth Poetry Slam.