Photo by Fred Viebahn We are delighted to announced the addition of Rita Dove to our roster of speakers for the Key West Literary Seminar next January. Dove joins current United States Poet Laureate Kay Ryan, and past Laureates Billy Collins, Charles Simic, Robert Pinsky, Maxine Kumin, and Mark Strand for our 28th annual event, intended as a celebration of 60 years of American poetry and a tribute to Richard Wilbur, himself a former Laureate. Dove served two terms in the office, from 1993-1995, and was also appointed a Special Bientennial Consultant in 1999. At 40 years old, she was the youngest poet to hold the office, appointed each year by the Librarian of Congress and meant to serve as "the nation's official lightning rod for the poetic impulse of Americans."

Dove's collections of poetry include Thomas and Beulah, which won the 1987 Pulitzer Prize; a 1993 Selected Poems; and the forthcoming Sonata Mulattica. Her collaboration with composer John Williams on the song cycle Seven for Luck was premiered by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and her play The Darker Face of the Earth has been produced at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. and the Royal National Theatre in London, among other venues.

You can learn more about Rita Dove on her KWLS Speaker Page. See all of this year's speakers here.

Register for 2010.

Video coverage of the 2009 Key West Literary Seminar has begun to air on cable television channel C-SPAN's Book-TV and is available on their website. Our entire January 10 program will air Saturday March 14, 2009, from 10:00 a.m until 3:45 p.m.; again (for the nightowls) on Sunday March 15, from 11:00 p.m. until 4:45 a.m.; and again during the weekend of April 4, 5, 6. The nearly six hours of programming from our January 10 sessions includes Gore Vidal in conversation with Jay Parini, Eric Foner's dazzling lecture "Who Owns History?," and a fascinating conversation between W.E.B. DuBois scholar David Levering Lewis and Michael and Ivy Meeropol, the son and granddaughter of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.

Check your local listings to find out what channel Book-TV is on in your area, and the program listings for times. Links to videos at Book-TV.org are listed below. (Please note that the C-SPAN video player will launch in a pop-up window, so you may have to disable your pop-up blocker in order to see them.)

    • "Writer Against the Grain": Gore Vidal with Jay Parini
     (you can also see a shorter excerpt of this on YouTube)

    • Eric Foner: "Who Owns History?"

    • Michael and Ivy Meeropol in conversation with David Levering Lewis

    • Barry Unsworth reading from Land of Marvels

    • "How Can We Know (and Tell) What Happened in the Past": panel discussion with Eric Foner, Jill Lepore, David Levering Lewis, Megan Marshall, Patricia O'Toole.

    • "The Boundaries of History, Historical Fiction, and the Limits of Invention": panel discussion with Peter Ho Davies, Sena Jeter Naslund, Megan Marshall, Michael Meeropol, Patricia O'Toole, and Barry Unsworth.

    • Alan Cheuse reads from To Catch the Lightning

    • Jane Kamensky and Jill Lepore: "Taking Liberty– Fiction and the Archives"