The new library of the Poetry Foundation in Chicago has a simple goal. “The mission of the library echoes that of the foundation: To place the best poetry in front of the most people,” explains Librarian Katherine Litwin.
But poetry can have a reputation for inaccessibility. “Even people with a deep relationship to poetry can find a space devoted to it intimidating,” Litwin says. The Poetry Foundation Library was designed to make the collection enjoyable and accessible.
The library is located off the main entrance of the foundation’s new headquarters. Two stories of windows fill the room with light and make it visible from almost any space in the building.
Inside, the first floor holds single-author volumes of children’s and adult poetry, arranged alphabetically by author to make them easily browsable. The library also contains a couch that’s easy to reconfigure for programming needs, and a long table with several computer workstations. Litwin uses the table as her desk as well, in order to minimize the distinction between librarian and patrons.
A mezzanine above the first floor holds anthologies, biographies, criticism, novels by poets, and chapbooks. A small private room has a computer workstation for listening to or viewing poetry readings.
The library’s 30,000-volume collection rests on shelves made of Baltic birch. They meet the floor in narrow channels of small pebbles, an architectural detail that is carried throughout the building.
Poetic treasures
The adult collection has been amassed since 1912 as the working collection of Poetry magazine. Many of the library’s books, even on the open stacks, include author inscriptions. “If I tried to take out all the inscribed books I wouldn’t have much of a collection left,” Litwin said.
Certain rarities, however, are held in the library’s special collections, which are not browsable on the main shelves but can be viewed by appointment. These include a copy of The Dreamkeeper by Langston Hughes, with an inscription by the author to Poetry’s founding publisher, Harriet Monroe. Other treasures in the special collections include a first edition of Ariel by Sylvia Plath and a limited-edition copy of Some Time by Louis Zukofsky with a rice paper cover and bound with rope.
A children’s collection is comprised of donations from Jack Prelutsky, Mary Ann Hoberman, and J. Patrick Lewis, who each have served as the foundation’s children’s poet laureate. The library also plans to acquire works for young adults.
During the summer, Litwin said the library has typically had 20–25 visitors a day. They constitute a broad spectrum, including kids and their parents, writers, students, and people interested in the architecture of the space. “Many patrons are older immigrants looking for poets who are essential to their culture,” she observed. “Poetry is a way to reach them.”
Future projects include a preservation project for the library’s chapbooks. The library hasn’t hosted any programming yet, but Litwin says those are also in the works, including a poetry book club, a poetry story hour for kids, school field trips, and an exhibition of three chapbook presses notable for their impressive design.
Open house invitation
The library’s first program, however, will be an open house September 7. The event will feature eight local poets reading from the library’s collection, opportunities for visitors to record themselves reading any poem that is in the public domain, and poetry fortune telling, in which a tarot card reader will give visitors poems based on the tarot cards they choose. Litwin said that librarians are especially encouraged to attend.
The open house will take place 5:30–8:30 p.m. Central time at the foundation’s library at 61 W. Superior Street in Chicago. Admission is free, although RSVPs are encouraged.
The Poetry Foundation Library will extend its hours this fall and expand its children’s programming. The library, now open to the general public on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m., will also be open Fridays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. as of September 9. Beginning September 14, the library will be open only for young patrons and their guardians from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Wednesdays, when librarians will be on hand to help young people with poetry-related homework and projects. Beginning September 21, the library will host Poemtime on Wednesdays, an event introducing children age five and under to poetry through fun, interactive games.