JOY HARJO

Poet Patricia Smith has won the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize for lifetime achievement.

Poet Carl Phillips has received a $75,000 honor for a body of work which judges said displays exceptional talent.

Former first lady Michelle Obama will be inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame (NWHF), the organization announced on Monday, International Women's Day. NWHF praised Obama for creating the several programs as first lady, including the Let's Move! Octavia ButlerJudy ChicagoKatherine JohnsonJoy HarjoRebecca HalsteadEmily HowlandIndra Nooyi @IndraNooyiMichelle ObamaMia HammFor more informationhttps://t.co/2eOe8o82bv#GreatWomen2021 #InternationalWomensDay #IWD2021 pic.twitter.com/gggqkMVfjs — National Women's Hall of Fame (@WomenoftheHall) March 8, 2021"During her eight years as First Lady, Michelle Obama she helped create the most welcoming and inclusive White House in history, transforming the White House into the 'People's House,'" NWHF said. "Since leaving the White House, she has continued to have a profound public impact." She has also launched The Michelle Obama Podcast, and with her husband, former President Barack Obama, created Higher Ground Productions.

FILE - In this May 11, 2019, file photo, former first lady Michelle Obama speaks during an appearance in Atlanta. Obama and soccer star Mia Hamm are among those chosen for the 2021 National Women's Hall of Fame class announced Monday, March 8, 2021. The Women's Hall of Fame induction ceremony is scheduled for Oct. 2, 2021. (Photo by Paul R. Giunta/Invision/AP, File)SENECA FALLS, N.Y. – Former first lady Michelle Obama and soccer star Mia Hamm have been chosen for the National Women's Hall of Fame as part of a Class of 2021 announced Monday that also includes former PepsiCo Chief Executive Indra Nooyi and retired Brig. The National Women's Hall of Fame inducts a new class every other year in Seneca Falls, the site of the first women's rights convention.

(AP Photo)NEW YORK – One of the country's oldest cultural instititutions, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, is undergoing some of its biggest changes in more than a century. AdHarjo, the first Native American to be appointed U.S. poet laureate, said she looked forward to having an influence on future academy choices. “There are so many incredible Native visual artists,” she told the AP, while also citing such authors as N. Scott Momaday and Leslie Marmon Silko. But the academy will still call itself an academy, while working to make itself more accessible to artists and to the general public. Besides choosing members, the academy also gives dozens of prizes and grants each year, totalling more than $1 million.

NEW YORK – U.S. poet laureate Joy Harjo will serve a third, one-year term and has launched an online project that celebrates Native American poets around the country. Her reappointment was announced Thursday by the Library of Congress, and her new term begins in September. Poetry has provided doorways for joy, grief and understanding in the midst of turmoil and pandemic,” Harjo, the first Native American to be named poet laureate, said in a statement. “I welcome the opportunity of a third term to activate my project and visit communities to share Native poetry. It features a digital map of 47 contemporary writers, including Harjo, Louise Erdrich and Natalie Diaz.

NEW YORK – With Election Day approaching and the pandemic ongoing, Oprah Winfrey is setting aside her usual book club recommendations and instead citing seven personal favorites, ranging from James Baldwin's landmark essays in “The Fire Next Time” to Mary Oliver's poetry collection “Devotions.”Winfrey is calling her choices “The Books That See Me Through," works she values for “their ability to comfort, inspire, and enlighten.”"It’s a mix of fiction, poetry, non-fiction and spirituality, books I know and trust and revisit time and again,” she said in a statement Monday. Winfrey had planned a new choice every two months; her previous selection, Isabel Wilkerson's “Caste,” was announced in early August. Winfrey spokesperson Chelsea Hettrick said the seven books announced Monday would serve as “a bridge between selections,” and that no firm timeline had been set for future choices. “This year has brought such unprecedented change overall. We will re-evaluate in the coming weeks the selection plan and timing for the remainder of 2020,” she said.