On Monday, May 10 at 7:30 pm ET, the O.B. Hardison Poetry Series at the Folger Shakespeare Library, in collaboration with The National Gallery of Art, welcomes poet Billy Collins.
This final reading of the 2020/21 virtual season, the 52nd season of this distinguished Series,
highlights this popular poet. Each year, the Folger Poetry Board, supporters of the O.B Hardison Poetry
Series, selects a distinguished poet to share their favorite poems from other poets and to read from their
own work.
This year’s Folger Poetry Board reader, Billy Collins, has been named “the most popular poet in
America” by The New York Times and is a former United States Poet Laureate. He is the author of several volumes of poetry, most recently Whale Day. His many honors and awards include the Poetry Foundation’s Mark Twain Award for Humor in Poetry.
Collins follows in the steps of noted poets Seamus Heaney, Rita Dove, Octavio Paz, Gwendolyn
Brooks, former British Poet Laureates Sir Andrew Motion, and Carol Ann Duffy, all former Folger
Poetry Board Readers, a designation which began in 1991 with Mr. Heaney.
This reading is free, but reservations are required. Register at www.folger.edu/poetry.
