Podcasts about speaker biography one

Sep. 5, 2015. Mexican poet Homero Aridjis discusses the role of a poet in intellectual life with Gwen Kirkpatrick at the 2015 Library of Congress National Book Festival in Washington, D.C. Speaker Biography: One of Latin America's foremost literary figures, Homero Aridjis is a writer of poetry, novels and nonfiction who is also well known as an environmental activist, diplomat and former president of PEN International. He has published 47 books of poetry and prose, and his works have been translated into 15 languages. His latest collection of poems available in English is "Solar Poems," and some of his other recent titles are "Eyes to See Otherwise" and "A Time of Angels." Aridjis has been an editorial columnist at La Jornada, Reforma and El Universal, and has published hundreds of articles on environmental, political and literary subjects. He has also organized the Group of 100 and several symposia which gathered prominent artists, writers and intellectuals worldwide to protect the environment and biodiversity, raise environmental awareness and defend freedom of expression. He has received various honors and awards, including two Guggenheim and several other fellowships, the Xavier Villaurrutia Prize, the Diana-Novedades Prize, the Grinzane Cavour Prize, the Roger Caillois Prize, the Smederevo Golden Key for Poetry, the Erendira State Prize for the Arts, Italy's International Prize for Poetry and the Natural Resources Defense Council Force for Nature Award. Aridjis has served as Mexico's ambassador to the Netherlands and Switzerland as well as UNESCO, and taught as a visiting professor at Indiana University, New York University, Columbia University and the University of California-Irvine. For transcript, captions, and more information, visit http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=6968

March 7, 2015. Composer Jennifer Higdon discusses her viola concerto. Speaker Biography: One of America's most popular composers of art music, Jennifer Higdon is on the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, holding the Milton L. Rock Chair in Composition Studies. She holds degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, the Curtis Institute of Music, and Bowling Green State University. In 2014 she received an honorary doctorate from Bowling Green, which named her one of its 100 most prominent graduates during the university's 2010 centennial commemoration. Higdon entered music as a flutist during her teenage years and she began composing at age twenty-one. She has studied conducting privately with Robert Spano and was a pupil of flutist Judith Bentley at Bowling Green. Robert Spano conducted the Philadelphia Orchestra and violinist Benjamin Beilman in performances of the Violin Concerto in Philadelphia in 2015. Higdon has also composed orchestral solo concertos for oboe, percussion, piano, and soprano saxophone. Her percussion concerto was awarded the 2009 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Classical Composition. She is also the recipient of Guggenheim and Pew fellowships, and has received awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. For transcript, captions, and more information, visit http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=6766

The Library's Veterans History Project commemorated Women's History Month with a landmark panel discussion on the contributions of women to the Persian Gulf War and the impact on women veterans in the more than 20 years since. Speaker Biography: One of the first female Navy diving officers, Darlene Iskra was also the first woman to command a ship in the U.S. Navy, the USS Opportune ARS-41, and took it to war during Desert Storm in January 1991. In addition to her experience as a sea-going officer, her staff work has included both enlisted personnel management at the Bureau of Naval Personnel, and civil affairs, disaster and military attache work for USCINCPAC Rep Marianas in Guam and the Marianas Islands. She retired from the U.S. Navy as a Commander in April 2000. Her story is included in the VHP collections and featured in VHP's Voices of War. Speaker Biography: Juliana Mock served in the Persian Gulf War with the US Army, 87th Medical Detachment (Dental Services) and 12th EVAC Hospital. Her unit provided dental support for the Iraqi EPWs at the 301st Military Police Camp. During the months of January, February and March 1991, the unit repeatedly experienced the loud alarms of chemical detectors and ingested expired pyrostigmine bromide tablets. Since the war she and her husband, also a Persian Gulf War veteran, experienced health complications and in 2003 she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. She is now president of Veterans of Modern Warfare and an advocate for Gulf War veterans health. Speaker Biography: An African-American woman raised in Philadelphia, Gail Shillingford joined the US Army in order to obtain money for college. She was assigned to support of the 3rd Infantry Division at Ft. Stewart, and deployed to the Persian Gulf for 10 months as a private. She recalls SCUD attacks and other perils in support of the front lines. She remains in the military, currently serving as CW4, GS assistant executive officer to the director of the Army Staff. Speaker Biography: Raised on an Indian Reservation, Juanita Mullen is a pioneer for American Indian women in the US Air Force. She served stateside during the Gulf War in support of troops overseas, watching her husband deploy and caring for her children and family while serving. She was mobilized for deployment but was called back. She retired from the Air Force after 20 years and, after a stint at the Bureau of Indian Affairs, joined the VA Center for Minority Veterans and Center for Women Veterans. She serves as the American Indian veterans liaison for both centers. For captions, transcript, and more information visit http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=5511.

Carmen Agra Deedy & John McCutcheon appear at the 2011 National Book Festival. Speaker Biography: Children's book author and storyteller Carmen Agra Deedy has won more than a dozen awards for her work. She was born in Havana, Cuba, and emigrated to the United States with her family in 1963 during the aftermath of the Cuban Revolution. Her most recent books are "The Cheshire Cheese Cat: A Dickens of a Tale" and "The Library Dragon Book." Speaker Biography: One of the most respected children's artists, John McCutcheon has consistently produced highly regarded albums for young people and folk albums since the early 1970s. During the '60s, McCutcheon taught himself to play a mail-order guitar and joined the local folk scene in his native Wisconsin. He is adept at a number of instruments and is an acknowledged master of the hammered dulcimer. For captions, transcript, and more information visit http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=5453.

Historian Eric Foner appears at the 2011 National Book Festival. Speaker Biography: One of the nation's preeminent historians, Eric Foner has been on the faculty of Columbia University since 1982. His work ranges from the early history of the Republican Party to Reconstruction and slavery, and he has written extensively on the topics of liberty and freedom. His most recent work, "The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery" (Norton), has been honored with the Pulitzer, Lincoln and Bancroft prizes. He was elected president of the American Historical Association in 2000. For captions, transcript, and more information visit http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=5297.

Margaret George appears at the 2011 National Book Festival. Speaker Biography: One of today's premier historical novelists, Margaret George has written about Helen of Troy, Cleopatra, Henry VIII, Mary Queen of Scots and Mary Magdalene. She has now published "Elizabeth I: A Novel" (Viking), about the legendary Elizabeth Tudor, the Virgin Queen. The book focuses on the last 15 years of her reign, beginning with the Armada in 1588, the greatest crisis she encountered. Although George's books of historic figures are fiction, she takes great pains to make them as factually accurate as possible.