NewsHour Poetry Series | PBS NewsHour Podcast | PBS

Charles Baxter is the author of four novels, four collections of short stories, three collections of poems, a collection of essays on fiction and is the editor of other works. He teaches at the University of Minnesota.

Charles Baxter is the author of four novels, four collections of short stories, three collections of poems, a collection of essays on fiction and is the editor of other works. He teaches at the University of Minnesota.

Jeffrey Brown talks to Libyan-born poet Khaled Mattawa about life under Moammar Gadhafi and the recent crisis in his homeland.

Poet Charles Wright has authored more than 20 books of verse and won numerous awards. The Pulitzer Prize-winning author reads some of his work and shares his sources of inspiration.

Khaled Mattawa was born in Benghazi, Libya, which is now much in the news, and came to the United States as a teenager in 1979. Jeffrey Brown spoke to Mattawa about the uprising in Libya, and about the history of poetry and literature there.

Khaled Mattawa was born in Benghazi, Libya, which is now much in the news, and came to the United States as a teenager in 1979. Jeffrey Brown spoke to Mattawa about the uprising in Libya, and about the history of poetry and literature there.

Although publishing relatively little, roughly 100 poems, Elizabeth Bishop wrote volumes, and over the last decade nearly all of her unpublished work has been made public. Last week, two new books were added to the Bishop's canon, titled simply "Poetry" and "Prose."

Megan Harlan's first book of poems, "Mapmaking," won the 2009 John Ciardi Prize. Her poems have appeared in several journals, including American Poetry Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, TriQuarterly, Prairie Schooner, AGNI Online and elsewhere.

Charles Wright was born in Pickwick Dam, Tenn., in 1935 and was educated at Davidson College and the University of Iowa. He has written several books of poems, including most recently, "Outtakes" (2010); "Sestets: Poems" (2010); and the forthcoming "Bye-and-Bye: Selected Late Poems" (April 2011).

Elizabeth Alexander was born in Harlem, raised in Washington, D.C., and attended Yale University, where she now teaches African American Studies. She is the author of six books of poems, including most recently, "Crave Radiance: New and Selected Poems 1990-2010."

Jennifer Chang is the author of "The History of Anonymity" (Georgia, 2008). A Ph.D. candidate in English at the University of Virginia, she co-chairs the advisory board of Kundiman, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the support and promotion of Asian American poetry.