The Center was founded in the 1940s and is currently the home of the Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry at the Library of Congress. In addition to supporting the Poet Laureate’s activities and interests, the Center sponsors an annual series of public poetry and fiction readings, lectures, symposia, occasional dramatic performances, and other literary events, and administers the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction, the Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry, and the Witter Bynner Fellowships for newer poets.