Do you struggle finding meaning in poetry? Is it too artsy for you? Contemporary poetry has shucked off obligatory rhymes and obscurity. Poetry is more topical, urgent, and accessible than ever and speaks to our present cultural condition. Find out what the increased interest is about.
Gigi Bradford is the inaugural recipient of the Poets House Elizabeth Kray Award for Service to Literature. She has directed The Academy of American Poets in New York, the Folger Shakespeare Library Poetry Program, the National Endowment for the Arts Literature Program, and the Center for Arts and Culture, the first think tank for the arts.
She received an MFA in Poetry from the Iowa Writers Workshop, has taught extensively, published poems and essays, and edited books. She is founding Chair of the Folger Poetry Board and serves ex-officio on the Board of the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, and has taught poetry reading and appreciation classes at Politics & Prose bookstore since 2006. Gigi lives in Cleveland Park.