In celebration of National Poetry Month, the 2011/2012 Inprint Margarett Root Brown closes with a reading by W. S. Merwin. Merwin, the 17th Poet Laureate of the United States, has for the last half century written more than 20 collections of poetry, nearly as many works in translation (from several languages), numerous prose works, and has won every major literary prize. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1971 for The Carrier of Ladders and received it again in 2009 for The Shadow of Sirius. Of Migration: New and Selected Poems, for which he won the National Book Award in 2005, one judge commented, "The poems speak a life-long belief in the power of words to awaken our drowsy souls and see the world with compassionate interconnection." Publishers Weekly writes of Merwin and Migration, "Mystical formalist, elegant romantic, Vietnam-era protester, translator, maker of sweet memoirs and uneasy dreamscapes, and ecological activist, Merwin has been so prominent for so long that it's hard to believe this rich selection represents the work of just one man." His first book of poetry, A Mask for Janus, was chosen for the Yale Younger Poets Series in 1952 by W. H. Auden. Merwin's reading will be followed by an on-stage interview, and a book sale and signing, where audience members can meet the poet.
