Unlike the baseball playoff season, there are multiple ?champions? during the Library of Congress?s literary season, which can be enjoyed by everyone who appreciates reading and writing.

Poet Laureate Charles Simic (who was appointed by the Librarian of Congress and is pictured at right) spoke with DCist on the eve of the literary season, which kicks off Oct. 18 with a reading by Simic in the Library?s Montpelier Room (Madison Building).

Notable quotable:

The U.S. Poet Laureate must be a sort of spokesman for poetry, though you probably don?t feel that it needs defending, especially since its audience seems to be growing. To what do you attribute this?

The growing popularity of poetry readings and writing programs in the last fifty years. Poetry is an art concerned with human solitude. We are a country of loners who see in poetry an outlet, a place to read or say something about their individual lives.