The Poet's Voice Celebrates 35 Seasons at Greenwich Library

In celebration of its 35^th season, The Poet's Voice and Greenwich Library are pleased to present poet, essayist, playwright and university professor Dr. Elizabeth Alexander, in a poetry reading on Sunday, March 4 at 2 p.m. in the Meeting Room.

Dr. Alexander became well known in 2009 when she was chosen to read her poetry at the presidential inauguration of Barack Obama. Alexander recited the poem "Praise Song for the Day," which she composed for the occasion. She became only the fourth poet to read at an American presidential inauguration, following Robert Frost in 1961, Maya Angelou in 1993 and Miller Williams in 1997.

Alexander has earned degrees from Yale, Boston University and the University of Pennsylvania. She has taught in many colleges and universities and since 2008 has chaired the African American Studies department at Yale.

Her collections of poetry include American Sublime, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize; Antebellum Dream Book; Body of Life; and The Venus Hottentot. Her work has been anthologized in over twenty collections. Her verse play, Diva Studies, premiered at the Yale School of Drama.

Alexander has received many awards, among them the Jackson Poetry Prize, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, two Pushcart Prizes and the Anisfield-Wolf Lifetime Achievement Award in Poetry in 2010.

This event, sponsored by the Friends of Greenwich Library and the Horace E. Manacher Poetry Fund, is free and open to the public.  For more information please contact Alice Bonvenuto at (203) 622-7910.