The Academy of American Poets congratulates Joy Harjo on being named our nation’s newest Poet Laureate by the Library of Congress and Librarian Carla Hayden. Harjo, who was elected an Academy Chancellor earlier this year, received the Academy’s Wallace Stevens Award for proven mastery in the art of poetry in 2015.
"It’s quite an honor, and I’m just at the very beginning. I’m assessing how I can be most useful in this position and, of course, it’s going to have a lot to do with Native Nations poets," said Harjo. "I always tell my students about poetry ancestors. Every poem has so many poetry ancestors. How can we construct a poetry ancestor map of America that would include and start off with poetry of indigenous nations? Those strands would continue into the present with the wonderful young Native poets we have right now."
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