Sun to Cybercast Lecture by Acclaimed American Poets

Posted on April 21, 1998

Sun Microsystems, Inc. will provide the technology for the Internet cybercast of a White House lecture by three U.S. poet laureates, Robert Pinsky, Rita Dove and Bob Haas, on Wednesday, April 22. This is the third in a series of White House Millennium Evening lectures co-sponsored by The National Endowment for the Humanities and The White House, hosted by President Clinton and The First Lady.

This week's White House Millennium Evening will be held on April 22, 1998 at 7:00 pm EST and invites luminaries from the fields of history, art, science and literature to participate. The event will be cybercast live on the Internet by Sun Microsystems.

Robert Pinsky, Writer-in-Residence at Northwestern University's Center for the Writing Arts, was named 1997 U.S. Poet Laureate and consultant in poetry by the Library of Congress. His work includes The Figured Wheel, An Explanation of America (Princeton), The Want Bone (Ecco), and History of My Heart, which was awarded the William Carlos Williams Prize of the Poetry Society of America. His collection of essays, Poetry and the World, was nominated for the National Book Critics Circle award in criticism.

Rita Dove, Commonwealth Professor of English at University of Virginia, won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1987 and was named 1993-95 U.S. Poet Laureate and consultant in poetry by the Library of Congress. Her work includes Hade's Pitch, Sonnet in Primary Colors, My Mother Enters the Work Force, The Boast, The Fish in the Stone, Used, History, Afield, Lost Brilliance, Primer for the Nuclear Age, and Heroes Political Rusks.

Robert Haas, Professor of English at University of California at Berkeley, was named 1995 U.S. Poet Laureate and consultant in poetry by the Library of Congress. His books of poetry include Field Guide, which was selected for the Yale Series of Younger Poets, Praise, and Human Wishes. Hass received the National Book Critics Circle Award for his book of essays, Twentieth Century Pleasures.

The White House Millennium Program is a multi-year initiative to mark the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the new millennium. The program celebrates the accomplishments of this American century, recognizes and initiates projects, and engages every sector of society in conveying America's rich heritage to future generations.