Event—Public Programming

Harriet Monroe & the Open Door

Explore the life of Harriet Monroe with Liesl Olson

Harriet Monroe

View the video recording of this event.

Harriet Monroe's extraordinary life and work gave the world one of the most exciting and enduring magazines devoted to “the best English verse which is being written today, regardless of where, by whom, or under what theory of art it is written.” In partnership with the current exhibition at the Poetry Foundation, this talk and discussion will explore Monroe's life and legacy, including her landmark poem for the 1893 Chicago's World Fair; her 1905 operetta "The Troll's Holiday," which she wrote while a resident at Hull-House; and the great experiment of launching Poetry magazine in 1912.

This program is inspired by the Poetry Foundation's new exhibition, Harriet Monroe & the Open Door, which includes reproductions of some Newberry collection materials.

Speaker

Liesl Olson is Director of the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum and former Director of Chicago Studies at the Newberry Library. She has written widely on twentieth-century literature and art, including Modernism and the Ordinary and Chicago Renaissance: Literature and Art in the Midwest Metropolis, which won the 2018 Pegasus Award from the Poetry Foundation for best book of poetry criticism, as well as the 2019 Mid-America Award from the Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature. Dr. Olson is co-curator of the exhibition Harriet Monroe and the Open Door at the Poetry Foundation.

Cost and Registration

This program is free and open to all. Advance registration required.

Registration opens September 1.

In-Person Registration

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Past Public Programs

Check out video recordings of past Newberry public programs on our YouTube channel.

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