An event Sunday features the poetry and prose of Elizabeth Bishop, who was U.S. poet laureate from 1949-50.

From Washington University:

Joelle Biele, editor of the book "Elizabeth Bishop and The New Yorker: The Complete Correspondence," published this year, will read Bishop's correspondence with The New Yorker, as will Lorin Cuoco of the St. Louis Poetry Center.

In addition, poems by Bishop will be read by WUSTL faculty and writers Mary Jo Bang, professor of English in Arts & Sciences; William Gass, PhD, the David May Distinguished University Professor Emeritus in the Humanities in Arts & Sciences; Carl Phillips, professor of English and a finalist for this year's National Book Award in poetry; and Catherine Rankovic, instructor in creative writing.

The free program starts at 4 p.m. in Wilson Hall, Room 214, on the university campus. A reception follows in Olin Library's Ginkgo Reading Room.

 

Bishop was influenced by poet Marianne Moore, who was born in Kirkwood. Bishop won multiple awards, including a Pulitzer and National Book Award. Even so, one of her famous poems, "On Art," begins:

The art of losing isn't hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.

Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant
to travel. None of these will bring disaster. ...

Bishop lived from 1911-79. Most of her work was published in The New Yorker. More than 200 letters she exchanged with poet May Swenson are held by Washington University Libraries’ Department of Special Collections.