COSWL Cause

Herta Müller "who, with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, depicts the landscape of the dispossessed"

Herta Müller has been named by the Swedish Academy as the winner of the 2009 Nobel prize for literature

Heather McHugh

Heather McHugh is a poet whose intricately patterned compositions explore various aspects of the human condition and inspire wonder in the unexpected associations that language can evoke. The author of eight volumes of poetry, numerous works of translation, and a book of essays on poetics, McHugh has been a significant voice in American literary life for almost four decades. In poems that are rich with wordplay — puns, rhymes, syntactical twists — she reveals the complex layers of meaning that individual words or phrases contain. The result is intellectually challenging, yet emotionally engaging verse that balances gravity with humor. In Eyeshot (2003), McHugh combines a range of literary traditions in poems that focus on our struggle to mediate the world and our place in it through the filter of sensory perceptions. She mines words for contradictions and double-meanings, offering the reader an expansive, fresh perspective on such themes as love and mortality. McHugh’s verbal playfulness and expressive range are also evident in her translation of Euripedes’ Cyclops (2001), the only surviving satyr play in Greek drama, as well as her widely respected series of essays, Broken English: Poetry and Partiality (1993). In this collection, she examines the relationship among language, culture, and poetry in works by authors ranging from Aeschylus to Dickinson to Rilke. A prolific writer of verse, translations, and essays and a dedicated teacher, McHugh has already influenced a generation of poets and will continue to enrich the art form for years to come.

Alice Munro is today, 27 May 2009, announced as the winner of the third Man Booker International Prize.

The Man Booker International Prize, worth £60,000 to the winner, is awarded once every two years to a living author for a body of work that has contributed to an achievement in fiction on the world stage. It was first awarded to Ismail Kadaré in 2005 and then to Chinua Achebe in 2007.

Best known for her short stories, Munro is one of Canada's most celebrated writers. On receiving the news of her win, she said, ‘I am totally amazed and delighted.'

The judging panel for the Man Booker International Prize 2009 is: Jane Smiley, writer; Amit Chaudhuri, writer, academic and musician; and writer, film script writer and essayist, Andrey Kurkov. The panel made the following comment on the winner:

‘Alice Munro is mostly known as a short story writer and yet she brings as much depth, wisdom and precision to every story as most novelists bring to a lifetime of novels. To read Alice Munro is to learn something every time that you never thought of before.'

Her latest collection of short stories, Too Much Happiness, will be published in October 2009. Alice Munro will receive the prize of £60,000 and a trophy at the Award Ceremony on Thursday 25 June at Trinity College, Dublin.

Launch celebration in Washington, D.C. for the new Frances Perkins Center, based at her family homestead in Newcastle, Maine:Celebrating Frances Perkins and Her Commitment to Social Justice

Frances Perkins Center: Honoring and Learning from the First Woman Appointed to a U.S. Cabinet.

Today, as in 1933, the nation faces serious economic uncertainty. As we struggle to find new answers, we look to the example of Frances Perkins, labor secretary during Franklin Roosevelt’s administration, for inspiration.

Perkins is best known for creating much of the social safety net that protects the elderly, young and those experiencing hard times. She is credited with creating Social Security, unemployment insurance and the system that became Aid to Dependent Children.

Frances Perkins, Secretary of Labor March 4, 1933 to June 30, 1945, was appointed by Roosevelt; was the first woman Cabinet member. Led the battle against the Great Depression: the Wagner-Peyser Act revitalized the U.S. Employment Service, the Fair Labor Standards Act set a floor under wages and a ceiling over hours, the Wagner Act protected workers' right to organize. She established the Labor Standards Bureau. Through effective relationships with the state governments, she strengthened labor law enforcement by the states. She was also the principal architect of the Social Security Act.

New book by Kirstin Downey, The Woman Behind the New Deal: The Life of Frances Perkins, FDR’s Secretary of Labor and His Moral Conscience,

Department of Labor Headquarters named after her in 1980. Inducted into the Labor Hall of Fame in 1988.