7:00 pm - 8:30 pm EDT

The kickoff event for the U.S. Poet Laureate’s signature project, including the publication of the new anthology “You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World,” and the kickoff of the Library’s annual Mary Oliver Memorial Event. Featuring Ada Limón with poets Molly McCully Brown, Jake Skeets, Analicia Sotelo and Paul Tran. The poets are supported by the Library’s new Mary Oliver Memorial Fund, a gift from Bill and Amalie Reichblum, members of the Library’s James Madison Council. The Fund is established, in part, to recognize talented emerging poets.

Visitors are invited to attend a book signing in Whittall Pavilion following the event. 

Molly McCully Brown is the author of the poetry collection "The Virginia State Colony For Epileptics and Feebleminded" and the essay collection "Places I've Taken My Body." With Susannah Nevison, she is also co-author of the poetry collection "In The Field Between Us." The Recipient of a United States Artist Fellowship, a Civitella Ranieri Foundation Fellowship, and the Amy Lowell Poetry Traveling Scholarship, she directs the Creative Writing Program at the University of Wyoming.

Jake Skeets is the author of "Eyes Bottle Dark with a Mouthful of Flowers," winner of the National Poetry Series, Kate Tufts Discovery Award, American Book Award, and Whiting Award. His honors include a National Endowment for the Arts Grant for Arts Projects, a Mellon Projecting All Voices Fellowship, and the 2023-2024 Grisham Writer in Residence at the University of Mississippi. He is from the Navajo Nation and teaches at the University of Oklahoma.

Analicia Sotelo is the author of "Virgin," the inaugural winner of the Jake Adam York Prize, selected by Ross Gay. She is also the author of the chapbook "Nonstop Godhead," selected by Rigoberto González for the Poetry Society of America. Analicia's poems have appeared in The New Yorker, the Nation, Best New Poets and elsewhere.

Paul Tran is the author of "All the Flowers Kneeling," winner of the California Independent Booksellers Association Golden Poppy Award and Wisconsin Library Association Poetry Award. Their work appears in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Best American Poetry, and elsewhere. Winner of the Discovery/Boston Review Poetry Prize, as well as fellowships from the Poetry Foundation, Stanford University, and National Endowment for the Arts, Paul is an Assistant Professor of English and Asian American Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.