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Witter Bynner Fellowships
The Poetry and Literature Center at the Library of Congress

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The Witter Bynner fellowship is awarded annually to two or more poets to be chosen by the Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry in conjunction with the Library. The fellowships support poetry on both a national and local level: the fellows are recognized at a reading in the nation’s capital and go on to organize a local poetry reading in their own communities.

Tuesday, April 2 at 6:30 PM - WITTER BYNNER FELLOWSHIP READING

Poets Sharon Dolin and Shara McCallum will be introduced by Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey as her selections for the Library's 2013 Witter Bynner Fellows. Both Dolin and McCallum will celebrate their selection with a reading. The event is free and open to the public. Book sales and a signing will follow. Montpelier Room, James Madison Building (sixth floor). <view map> Contact: (202) 707-5394

Sharon Dolin2013 Witter Bynner Fellows

Sharon Dolin is the author of five collections of poetry, including Whirlwind (2012), Burn and Dodge (2008), Realm of the Possible (2004), Serious Pink (2003), and Heart Work (1995). Her poems have recently appeared in Poetry, Hotel Amerika, The AWP Chronicle, The Cortland Review, Drunken Boat, The Georgia Review, The Kenyon Review, New American Writing, The New Republic, Poetry International, and Prairie Schooner. She holds a Ph.D in English from Cornell University as well as an MA in English from University of California, Berkley, and has studied as a Fulbright Scholar. She lives in New York City, where she teaches the Unterberg Poetry Center at the 92nd Street Y and directs the Center for the Book Arts Annual Letterpress Poetry Chapbook Competition. Photo credit: Alfredo Rossi.

Shara McCallum

Shara McCallum has published four collections of poetry, including The Face of Water: New and Selected Poems (2011), This Strange Land (2011), Song of Thieves (2003), and The Water Between Us (1999). Her poems have appeared in such literary journals as The Antioch Review, Witness, The Iowa Review, and Verse and in over 20 anthologies, including The New American Poets: A Bread Loaf Anthology (ed. Michael Collier, 2000) and Beyond the Frontier: African American Poetry for the Twenty-First Century. The recipient of a 2011 Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, McCallum holds a Ph.D in African American and Caribbean Literature from Binghamton University and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Maryland. She is a professor of English and director of the Stadler Center for Poetry of Bucknell University. Photo credit: Steven Shwartzer.

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Full List of Previous Witter Bynner Fellows

  • 2012: L.S. Asekoff and Sheila Black (appointed by Philip Levine)
  • 2011: Forrest Gander and Robert Bringhurst (appointed by W. S. Merwin)
  • 2010: Jill McDonough and Atsuro Riley (appointed by Kay Ryan)
  • 2009: Christina Davis and Mary Szybist (appointed by Kay Ryan)
  • 2008: Matthew Thorburn and Monica Youn (appointed by Stanley Kunitz)
  • 2007: Laurie Lamon and David Tucker (appointed by Donald Hall)
  • 2006: Joseph Stroud and Connie Wanek (appointed by Ted Kooser)
  • 2005: Claudia Emerson, Martin Walls (appointed by Ted Kooser)
  • 2004: Dana Levin, Spencer Reece (appointed by Louise Glück)
  • 2003: Major Jackson, Rebecca Wee (appointed by Billy Collins)
  • 2002: George Bilgere, Katia Kopovich (appointed by Billy Collins)
  • 2001: Tory Dent, Nick Flynn (appointed by Stanley Kunitz)
  • 2000: Naomi Shihab Nye, Joshua Weiner (appointed by Robert Pinsky)
  • 1999: David Gewanter, Campbell McGrath, Heather McHugh (appointed by Robert Pinsky)
  • 1998: Carol Muske-Dukes, Carl Phillips (appointed by Robert Pinsky)