Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden has appointed Joy Harjo to serve a second term as the nation’s 23rd Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry for 2020-2021. During her second term, Harjo will launch a new Library of Congress collection and online map featuring Native poets and poetry.

“Joy Harjo is such an inspiring and engaging poet laureate,” Hayden said. “I’m thrilled she said yes to a second term to help the Library showcase Native poets from coast-to-coast. Her profound musical and literary talents are a gift to the nation.”

Harjo’s second term will begin Sept. 1 and will focus on her signature laureate project, “Living Nations, Living Words: A Map of First Peoples Poetry.” This digital project, developed in conjunction with the Library’s Geography and Map Division, will be created using ARCGIS StoryMaps, a web mapping application geared toward storytelling, to showcase contemporary Native American poets from across the country.

The project will include Native poets’ biographies and recordings of them reading and discussing one of their poems. It will also help build a new collection in the Library’s American Folklife Center featuring the recordings of the Native poets.

“It is an honor to serve a second term as poet laureate, especially during these times of earth transformation and cultural change,” Harjo, who is the first Native poet to serve in the position, said. “Poetry reminds us that we are connected beyond words, and to communicate through poetry has the potential to expand the conversation into wordless depths, to help us move collectively into fresh cultural vision. To get there in understanding, we begin with the roots. In this country, the roots are found in the poetry of the more than 500 living indigenous nations.”

During the coronavirus pandemic, Harjo’s work was recently featured in The Poetry of Home, a new video series from The Washington Post and the Library featuring four U.S. poets laureate on the theme of “home” at a time when so many people are sheltering in place.