Forche is the co-editor of the new anthology "Poetry of Witness." When she started collecting poems by writers who had endured warfare, censorship, and other extreme situations, people told her she was collecting political poems. But Forche wanted to look more deeply and "understand the poetry as an outcry of the soul."

She worked through 500 years of English language poetry featuring the aftermath of "war and upheaval' and included wartime poets as well as poets less associated with that kind of destruction, like poet Emily Dickinson who lived during the Civil War.

According to Forche, Dickinson "was engaged and effected by a country at war."

Forche says you can feel their experiences when you read the poetry.

"It becomes legible in the poems."

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JUDY WOODRUFF: Finally tonight: capturing the full range of the human experience on the page.

Jeff is back with our book conversation.

JEFFREY BROWN: Poets write of many things, of love, of nature, of their own interior lives. From at least the time of Homer to our own, they have also written of war, political upheaval, national tragedies, the dark things that people do to one another.

A new anthology looks at this tradition as it's played out in English literature. It's called "Poetry of Witness," co-edited by Carolyn Forche and Duncan Wu.

Ms. Forche joins me now, a professor of English at Georgetown University. She is herself an acclaimed poet who's written of strife in Central America and elsewhere.

And welcome to you.

CAROLYN FORCHE, "Poetry of Witness": Thank you very much.

JEFFREY BROWN: First what, do you mean by poetry of witness? What does that mean?

CAROLYN FORCHE: "Poetry of Witness" is written by poets who endured conditions of extremity, who passed through the suffering of warfare, imprisonment, forced exile, censorship, banning orders.

They passed through these experiences. Their language also passed through it. And they write in the aftermath. And their language articulates that suffering. It becomes legible in the poems.

JEFFREY BROWN: As I go through it here, it's almost like an alternative history, or the news, and I was thinking about what we do on this program.

CAROLYN FORCHE: We felt that we were reading back through 500 years of English-language poetry to find out what happened in the aftermath of all of the wars and everything that -- all of the upheaval in England and her former colonies. This is all English-language poetry.

And we felt that this was a new way of reading it, that we have discovered something very special, and that is that poets have always been embroiled in the events of their times in history. And they have always spoken of it in their work. And we have gathered it all together in one place.

JEFFREY BROWN: Do you think -- I mention that you have done this kind of work, and I have read it for many years. How do you think about it personally? I mean, do, you think of yourself as a witness, to use your word, or a reporter, in a sense, or as poet first?

CAROLYN FORCHE: Well, I have been in countries at war, especially when I was younger, by force of circumstance, in the beginning as a translator, and then accompanying my husband, who was a journalist.

And I was very deeply affected by it. And some of that experience emerged in the poems. And at first, everyone was saying, oh, it's political. These are political poems. But I thought, we have to think about this more deeply. We have to open a space for reading work that emerges in the aftermath of violence and conflict, and not politicize it, but actually understand it as a kind of outcry of the soul.

JEFFREY BROWN: Some of the -- many of the poems are directly about war, for example.

But then you include someone like Emily Dickinson. We don't think of her as a war poet. We think of her sitting at home, right, and yet what?

CAROLYN FORCHE: We think of her in the white dress up in her room, but she wrote most of her poems during the Civil War. And in her letters, we find laments over the war dead. She knew many combatants. The war was very much in her mind.

She even said at one point in a letter, I am singing from the charnel steps. I'm singing from the tomb that's holding the bones and the bodies. And she's very poignant in her letters in this regard. And so we found some poems that she had actually written and published in "Drum Beat," which was a magazine that was dedicated to raising funds to help soldiers with medical supplies.

So she was engaged and effective, and she lived in a country in a time of war, and so she's included here.

JEFFREY BROWN: You take us through of course many of the famous World War I poets and then World War II and after.

I'm just wondering, in our last minute here, about where we are today. There's a lot of talk about contemporary poetry being more inward, people writing about themselves. Is there still a sense of writing about the world, about what's happening?

CAROLYN FORCHE: The tradition continues in all countries, even our own.

Our veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan and Vietnam, the wars that we have been engaged in, in the last several decades, are writing, and we have some very poignant and masterful poems that have come of it. Unfortunately, it continues. And our poets continue to speak of it, and they aren't silencing themselves.

JEFFREY BROWN: All right, well, we have asked you to read a number of those poems that we're going to put online.

CAROLYN FORCHE: Yes.

JEFFREY BROWN: And we invite the audience to go take a look at those.

And I thank you for that.

CAROLYN FORCHE: Thank you.

JEFFREY BROWN: And the new anthology is "Poetry of Witness," co-edited by Duncan Wu and Carolyn Forche. Thank you very much.

CAROLYN FORCHE: Thank you.

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GWEN IFILL: Now a remembrance of folk legend Pete Seeger, his distinct voice, his music, and his influence.

Jeffrey Brown has an appreciation.

(MUSIC)

JEFFREY BROWN: Pete Seeger lived the life of performer, folklorist, and activist for more than 60 years, with his trademark five-string banjo nearly always close at hand.

Over those decades, he wrote and co-wrote a long list of songs that became American standards, and left a lasting mark on several generations. Seeger got his start in the late 1930s, and by 1940, he was performing with Woody Guthrie and others as the Almanac Singers.

PETE SEEGER, musician: I had a good ear. And I could accompany him on anything. I didn't have to hear it once. The first time I heard it, I could hear a chord change coming. And I couldn't get -- and I didn't play anything fancy. I just gave him a good solid backing. I didn't try and play fancy breaks or anything.

JEFFREY BROWN: After World War II, Seeger helped form the Weavers, a group that gave rise to a folk music revival across the U.S. Along the way, he joined the Communist Party, then renounced it.

But, in 1955, he confronted the House Un-American Activities Committee and was blacklisted for 10 years. In those years, he played in coffeehouses and for college crowds and, in later life, said it was the high point of his career.

PETE SEEGER: I tell people nobody can prove a thing, but, obviously, if I didn't think music could help save the human race, I wouldn't be making music.

JEFFREY BROWN: As the 1960s dawned, Seeger turned his music and liberal activism to a series of causes, from social justice and Vietnam, to conservation, notably the cleanup of the Hudson River, and civil rights. In doing so, he helped make "We Shall Overcome" an anthem for the movement.

PETE SEEGER: No one can tell what a song can do. All you can do is quote people who said, well, that song changed my life or something like that. And leaders like Dr. King have testified how important music has been in the movement. John L. Lewis said a sing movement is a winning movement.

JEFFREY BROWN: Years later, Bruce Springsteen's album "We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions" helped introduce the folk icon to an entirely new audience.

The two also performed in 2009 at a Washington concert for President Obama's first inauguration.

Today, the president issued a statement, saying: "Pete Seeger believed deeply in the power of song. But, more importantly, he believed in the power of community -- to stand up for what's right, speak out against what's wrong, and move this country closer to the America he knew we could be."

Seeger was still pursuing that goal late in life. He joined an Occupy Wall Street march in 2011, and walked through the streets of Manhattan with the help of two canes to protest what he saw as corporate greed.

Last year, in one of his final interviews, he spoke with Mountain Lake PBS in Plattsburgh, New York, at his home and hailed the value of traditional folk music.

PETE SEEGER: I think we learn the history of our country by knowing some of the old songs, whether they are love songs, or satirical songs, or adventure stories put into verse. I think you learn history. And to learn the history of your own country is an important thing.

JEFFREY BROWN: Pete Seeger died of natural causes Monday night in New York. He was 94 years old.

And now some thoughts about Pete Seeger and his work from his longtime friend Peter Yarrow of the famed folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary. Their recording of Seeger's "If I Had a Hammer" was a top 10 hit in 1962. And he was with Pete Seeger in the hospital last night before he died.

Well, thank you so much for joining us.

And perhaps I will ask you to put it in personal terms first. How would you describe Pete Seeger's influence on you? 

PETER YARROW, musician: He was -- as Mary said about Pete Seeger and the Weavers, we were Seeger's raiders.

He gave our life direction. He was our inspiration. He lived his ethic. And his whole perspective, which was that music was there to bring people's hearts together, was really the basis for Peter, Paul, and Mary's doing what we did, and always using the music when we were called upon to be a part of the March on Washington in '63, the Selma, Montgomery, march, the anti-war movement, and even through today.

And it never stopped. And Pete was always there as a beacon of what was possible if you made that kind of commitment. He was extraordinary.

JEFFREY BROWN: How did he -- did he see himself with a mission, if that's the right word?

PETER YARROW: Well, I think he did.

I think he believed he had a mission. But I don't think he was -- it was presumptuous on his point. It was just the way things were. Remember, he came out of a period in the blacklist when he and the Weavers were just not allowed to perform anywhere. And it was a very, very difficult time. And it destroyed their career, when they had actually ushered in the beginning of what could have been the folk renaissance in the '50s with "Irene, Goodnight" and "Tzena, Tzena, Tzena," huge hits.

And so, for him, the struggle was just what he did. And he saw himself, I think, in those terms. But it wasn't a sense of arrogance or presumption about it. He was the most humble guy you ever met.

JEFFREY BROWN: And that folk tradition that, of course, he was so much a part of, it was interesting for me to read that he wasn't born to it, certainly not to the rural tradition, but he learned it, he took to it, he clearly wanted to foster it for many generations.

PETER YARROW: Well, it was his passion.

And it wasn't -- whatever it was that brought him into it -- and I know there was a kind of an -- a very erudite background from which he came, and his father, Charles Seeger, was a musicologist. And it was -- he had the strong background, but, to Pete, it meant not just the music. It was living the commitment.

And, you know, Pete was -- did receive a sentence -- it was never served -- from the House Un-American Activities Committee. He refused to answer. He took his stand and he never faltered. So, you know, his immersion in it was a love for common human beings.

And he wrote that way, and he wrote about it. And you can understand his words. They were very simple. You know it was:

(singing): Where have all the flowers gone, long time passing, Where have all the...

It's not hard to understand, or:

(singing): If I had a hammer.

It was there. It was easy, easy to grasp, never, never apart from the most common, decent kind of communication between people.

JEFFREY BROWN: All right. Well, that's a wonderful way to end.

Thank you so much, Peter Yarrow, on the life and work of Pete Seeger. Thanks so much.

PETER YARROW: Thank you.

Pete Seeger playing the banjo around 1966. Photo by Sam Falk/New York Times Co./Getty Images

Although his words were simple, Yarrow says he was passionately persistent.

"He refused to answer. He took a stand and never faltered," Yarrow told chief arts correspondent Jeffrey Brown on Tuesday. "The struggle was just what he did and he saw himself in those terms, but it wasn't a sense of arrogance or presumptions. He was the most humble guy you ever met."

Pete Seeger died on Monday night at the age of 94. His music career, which spanned over 70 years and 100 recorded albums, influenced countless musicians and activists. Peter, Paul and Mary were among them.

"He was our inspiration. His ethic, his whole perspective was that music was there to bring people's hearts together, really, the basis for doing what we did."

Watch Tuesday's broadcast of the PBS NewsHour to hear more of Peter Yarrow's memories of Pete Seeger. You can tune in to our Ustream channel at 6 p.m. EST or check your local PBS listings.

See how other artist remember Pete Seeger. You'll find stories and old performances, including a recording from 1941 by WNYC.

Pete Seeger, the legendary folk musician who helped spearhead the American folk revival, died Monday night in New York City at the age of 94 from natural causes. Across more than seven decades, he inspired scores of singer-songwriters, activists and social movements. Just before his death, he was serenaded in his hospital bed by close friends.

Seeger performs 'This Land Is Your Land' as part of the Woody Guthrie Centennial Celebration at The Whitman Theater at Brooklyn College on Sept 22, 2012. Photo by Mike Coppola/WireImage for NARAS

David Amram, a fellow musician and longtime friend of Seeger, was among the group who sang to him. "I was fortunate enough to be able to say goodbye to him during the last two hours of his life. As [we] played some music for him and his family in his hospital room, we could feel his spirit fill our hearts with that endless energy he shared with the world for 94 years," wrote Amram in an email to friends and family in Seeger's honor.

"Ever since he chose his path, he has stayed on it and walked the walk he talked and inspired generations to raise our voices in song, to always think of others, to respect ourselves and all who cross our paths and to share whatever blessings we have with others." Listen to a 1941 recording of Pete Seeger performing with Lee Hayes. They both went on to be members of The Weavers, a quartet that was part of the New York City's Greenwich Village folk scene.

Many of Seeger's songs became trademarks of the various social movements that kindled his passion and fight. "Where Have All the Flowers Gone," one of his best known songs became a regular anthem in the anti-war movement in the 1960s and '70s. "We Shall Overcome," an early gospel song adapted by Seeger from "We Will Overcome," was a rallying cry during the civil rights movement in the 1960s.

Watch Pete Seeger perform "Where Have All the Flowers Gone."

"Pete used his voice -- and his hammer -- to strike blows for worker's rights and civil rights; world peace and environmental conservation. And he always invited us to sing along," President Obama wrote in a statement released by the White House.

Pete Seeger's banjo is famously inscribed with the words "This machine surrounds hate and forces it to surrender." Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images

Over the course of 100 recorded albums, Seeger influenced an extensive and impressive list of artists. Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Bryce Springsteen, Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary, and Bernice Johnson Reagon of Sweet Honey in the Rock, just to name of few.

Arlo Guthrie was also inspired by Seeger and played with him many times. Guthrie's father, Woodie Guthrie, was a close friend of Seeger's and the duo performed together on occasion before they were both blacklisted as communists.

The younger Guthrie honored his friend and mentor in a Facebook post:

"I usually do a little meditation and prayer every night before I go to sleep - Just part of the routine. Last night, I decided to go visit Pete Seeger for a while, just to spend a little time together, it was around 9 PM. So I was sitting in my home in Florida, having a lovely chat with Pete, who was in a hospital in New York City. That's the great thing about thoughts and prayers- You can go or be anywhere. I simply wanted him to know that I loved him dearly, like a father in some ways, a mentor in others and just as a dear friend a lot of the time."

Watch clips of Pete Seeger performing, plus interviews with the musician and others at American Masters.

Peter Yarrow will join chief arts correspondent on Tuesday's PBS NewsHour to help remember Pete Seeger. You can livestream the broadcast on our Ustream channel at 6 p.m. EST or check your local PBS listings.

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JEFFREY BROWN: The jailing of the women stemmed from what they termed a punk prayer they performed in 2012 at a Russian Orthodox cathedral in Moscow. They were charged with hooliganism and two of the five women involved served time in prison camps, where they went on hunger strikes to protest conditions.

Their story is told in the new book "Words Will Break Cement: The Passion of Pussy Riot" by Russian-American author and journalist Masha Gessen. Her previous book is "The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin."

Welcome to you.

MASHA GESSEN, Author, "Words Will Break Cement: The Passion Of Pussy Riot": Thank you.

JEFFREY BROWN: We referred to Pussy Riot as a punk band or art collective, political activism -- how should we think of them? What are they?

MASHA GESSEN: They are a protest art collective who created a character called Pussy Riot, which is a punk band.

JEFFREY BROWN: A character, yes.

MASHA GESSEN: So they performed as this character. And they staged a series of guerrilla performances in Moscow and a variety of locations to protest various expressions of the Putin regime.

JEFFREY BROWN: In your book, you go through how they all came at this from different ways. But is there a common thread or something that led to this collective action?

MASHA GESSEN: They're young. They're very young.

The two who ended up serving time were both in college. One was 22, one was 23 at the time that they were jailed. They're very, very smart. And, you know, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, who is sort of the mastermind behind this, is very unusual.

I mean, I couldn't find an explanation, which is part of what I tried to do. I didn't find an explanation for how a person like that comes to be in a place like that. But she is absolutely brilliant, as all of them are.

JEFFREY BROWN: Because she is coming out of a culture that doesn't make a lot of space for such things?

MASHA GESSEN: She's coming out of a culture that has no space for feminism.

She is also coming out of a town that has no place for education. She comes from this very small, very, very dark town in every way town in the Arctic Circle. She is very much an autodidact. And yet somehow she is steeped in the Western tradition of protest, which I think has in some ways made things very difficult for Pussy Riot in Russia, but also contributed to making them a worldwide celebrity.

JEFFREY BROWN: You chronicle their founding as in a former group and then this group. And then they start taking these actions, and then, of course, the catalytic event at the cathedral.

How did they see that performance? How did you come to see the way they looked at what they were doing?

MASHA GESSEN: Well, they saw it as a prank.

JEFFREY BROWN: A prank first and foremost?

MASHA GESSEN: It was an art prank. I think that they were hoping it was a brilliant prank. I think they were hoping for a lot of attention.

I think they feared that they were risking something, like maybe 15 days administrative arrest. They never thought they were going to jail.

JEFFREY BROWN: They had no idea what this might lead to?

MASHA GESSEN: No, no.

And, in fact, you know, their arrest was the beginning of the crackdown. People didn't actually go to jail for peaceful protest in Russia at the time for more than 15 days administrative arrest.

They are the first in a long line of people who have gone to jail since. But, really, it is highly symbolic that they were arrested on the day that Vladimir Putin claimed to be reelected to a third term as president. And it was really the beginning of a new era in Russian politics.

JEFFREY BROWN: They were stepping into not only politics, but religion, tradition, culture. How does -- how are they seen by the rest of the country or by the majority of the country, if one can ask that?

MASHA GESSEN: Right. Well, right.

The refrain of the punk prayer was, mother of God, chase Putin out.

JEFFREY BROWN: Right. So, you have got both. You have religion and you have Putin. right

MASHA GESSEN: Well, which was exactly the point. They were protesting the symbiosis of church and state.

They were protesting the fact that the head of the Russian Orthodox Church was actively campaigning for Putin and against the protesters. So I think that it is very difficult to answer the question how does Russia see them, because Russia is not a whole country. Russia is a country that is extremely polarized and ripped apart by the last 14 years of dictatorship.

So there is the Russia that watches television that sees them as women who went in and behaved abominably in a church. And then there's the much smaller rush that doesn't watch television and that is somehow involved in the protest culture or in the opposition.

And I think they are the ones who very much the target audience of this. They -- I think some of them were taken aback by the protests, but it came around to think that it really identified its targets brilliants

And that I think is what makes it a great work of art. It made people think.

JEFFREY BROWN: Do you think the women see a continuing role for themselves now? Is there a space for them to fit in the kind of work they want to do?

MASHA GESSEN: Well, they have been profoundly changed by the two years that they -- nearly two years they have spent in prison.

Vladimir Putin magnanimously knocked two months off of their sentences, so they were released a little bit early. But they spent two years in abominable conditions that often could only be described as torture. And they have come out as -- they went in college dropouts -- college students, actually, who had staged a prank, and they came out political activists, seasoned political activists.

They have declared their intention to found a broad-ranging prisoners rights movement. And they have been working on that very, very hard, day and night. They have always done quite a lot to publicize the conditions in prisons in Russia. So that is their place now. They see Pussy Riot, I think, with a little bit of wistful nostalgia.

JEFFREY BROWN: Let me just ask you finally about yourself. You have written much about -- and this goes to the other -- one of the other issues with Russia now and some recent laws about homosexuality.

You have written about being a lesbian, and a parent and watching what has happened there, and your own decision to leave the country. Do you see the country -- where do you see things headed?

MASHA GESSEN: Oh.

Well, first of all, the irony of my situation is that I didn't have to leave the country over writing a highly critical biography of Putin. And I ended up leaving the country over the anti-gay laws, because there was a direct threat to my family. And I feared that my children would be taken away.

I think the crackdown is extremely damaging for the country and the people. I think that it's good for Putin. He has chosen the most effective way to confront the mass protest movement that he faced two years ago. It will keep him in power longer than any other tactic that he could have appointed -- that he could have chosen.

But it will do extreme damage to the country. And the longer it goes on, the worst things will be after it's over.

JEFFREY BROWN: All right.

The new book is "Words Will Break Cement: The Passion of Pussy Riot"

Masha Gessen, thanks so much.

MASHA GESSEN: Thank you. 

Peter Cole thinks of all poetry as translation.

"Writing one's own poetry, you're translating a nonverbal experience or a less than articulate experience into something much more articulate," he told Art Beat.

In addition to writing his own, Cole translates Hebrew and Arabic poetry into English. When Cole finished translating 2,000 years of Jewish mystical poetry for his previous project "The Poetry of Kabbalah" (Yale University Press, 2012), he was ready to start producing his own work again, but it wasn't a simple or easy transition.

"Every morning you come to your desk. There's lots to do and it can be that way for many years. And then you finish and you feel a certain pressure and you want to write your own poems, or they want to be written, but there's the terror of course, what will you do when you have all that time and all that space?"

So Cole wrote about a poem that deals with that fear, "Quatrains for a Calling."

Hear Peter Cole read Quatrains for a Calling.

Quatrains for a Calling

Why are you here? Who have you come for and what would you gain? Where is your fear?

Why are you here?

You've come so near, or so it would seem; you can see the grain in the paper -- that's clear.

But why are you here

when you could be elsewhere, earning a living or actually learning? Why should we care

why you're here?

Is that a tear? Yes, there's pressure Behind the eyes-- And there are peers.

But why are you here?

At times it sears. The pressure and shame and the echoing pain. What do you hear

now that you're here?

The air's so severe. It calls for equipment, which comes at a price. And you've volunteered.

Why? Are you here?

What will you wear? What will you do if it turns out you've failed? How will you fair?

Why are you here

when it could take years to find out--what? It's all so slippery, and may not cohere.

And yet, you're here ...

Is it what you revere? How deep does that go? How do you know? Do you think you're a seer?

Is that why you're here?

Do you have a good ear? For praise or for verse? Can you handle a curse? Define persevere.

Why are you here?

It could be a career.

In "Quatrains for a Calling," a poem from his new collection "The Invention of Influence" (New Directions, 2014), Cole begins by having a conversation with himself and the reader.

"When you read it and someone asks 'Why are you here?,' I'm asking the reader, 'Why are you here? Why are you here reading this poem?'"

Cole and the reader are on a journey together. "In a sense, we're engaged in the same pursuit, the same quest trying to find out what we're trying to get from poems."

Cole's poetry is influenced by Jewish mysticism. He draws on Kabbalistic concepts for the titles of the poems and the themes he explores throughout "The Invention of Influence."

For those who aren't as familiar with the Kabbalah, there's a handy section of notes in the back of the book where he explains relevant mystical histories and notions.

"I understand that people don't walk around with knowing a lot of these things."

But, for Cole, some of those notions are central to his philosophy.

"For the Kabbalists, whether they are writing poetry or whether they are engaged in a theological speculation, the stakes are incredibly high. Worlds are made and unmade based on what you might do or say or sing," Cole explained.

"That's something I identify with as a poet. I think the stakes are very high for poetry, at least I want the stakes to be very high."

The Invention of Influence (c) 2014 by Peter Cole. Reprinted with permission by New Directions.

Daft Punk swept the stage Sunday night at the 56th Grammy Awards. The duo took home many of the coveted awards, including record of the year for "Get Lucky" and album of the year for "Random Access Memories."

But the Grammys weren't only a show of big name artist and former winners. Lorde, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, and Kacey Musgraves were the featured rising stars last night in the pop, rap, and country music categories respectively.

Lorde's "Royals" won best song of the year and best pop solo performance. That's a far cry from a year ago, when the New Zealand musician was playing gigs in small clubs.

The Seattle duo Macklemore & Ryan Lewis left the Staples Center with best new artist, best rap performance, best rap song, both for the song "Thrift Shop," and best rap album for "The Heist." This was no easy feat as they were up again rap giants such as Jay-Z, Drake, and Eminem.

Sunday night wasn't only about pop, rap and country.

Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell won best Americana album for "Old Yellow Moon" and the Del McCoury Bank won best bluegrass album for "The Streets of Baltimore."

Ben Harper and Charlie Musselwhite won best blues album for "Get up!"

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JUDY WOODRUFF: Finally tonight: remembering a poet who challenged his country's military dictators.  
Jeff is back with that.

JEFFREY BROWN:  Juan Gelman was an Argentine poet who became a major literary figure throughout Latin America and in Spain.  He was also known for his fight against the military junta that ruled Argentina in the 1970s and '80s, and for the personal tragedy that came from that.  

His daughter was kidnapped and tortured.  His son and daughter-in-law were killed.  And their child, Gelman's granddaughter, was taken and given away for adoption.  Gelman finally located her in 2000.  

Juan Gelman died at age 83 at his home in Mexico City this week.  

Here to tell us more is Ilan Stavans, a writer and professor of Latin American culture at Amherst College.  He's editor of "The FSG Book of Twentieth Century Latin-American Poetry."

First, tell us a little bit about Juan Gelman the poet.  What accounted for his prominence in the Spanish-speaking world?  What was his poetry like?  

ILAN STAVANS, Professor of Latin American Culture, Amherst College:  Juan Gelman belonged to a tradition in Latin American poetry that connected the people with the word, the spoken word, the written word, the tradition best represented by Pablo Neruda.

In his case, Juan Gelman's case, he understood that the role of poetry was to speak truth to power.  And throughout the Dirty War, the Guerra Sucia, in Argentina, he took very seriously the role that, as a poet, he needed to bear witness to the situation that the country was going through and to allow his poetry to last beyond the daily massacres, the disappearances that were taking place. 

He was very shrewd.  He knew that a poem is more powerful, ultimately, than a gun or a hand grenade, in that a poem can change people's minds.  And that is what his poetry ended up doing.  

JEFFREY BROWN:  And the themes that he addressed went to that?  Or -- I saw in one -- the end of one poem that you translated called "End": "Poetry is a way of living.  Look at the people at your side.  Do they eat, suffer, sing, cry?"

He was really looking at common people.  

ILAN STAVANS:  He was looking at common people.  Jeff, he was looking at common things.  He was looking at our environment, at nature in general, and trying to give those objects that surround us the place that they have, recognizing them, birds, the ocean, a city, a car.  

They are part of our daily life, and we barely notice them.  And through his poetry, he wanted to connect us with the environment.  He wanted to connect us with the emotions that we feel.  And he wanted to use poetry as a way to explain what the DNA of an entire civilization was about.  The beauty of his poetry is that he found a style that connected the entire Argentine people with the continent of Latin America and the world entire by allowing him to speak about the very daily, very mundane, very common happenings that make a life, and that as a poet he wanted to bear witness to them.  

He understood that poetry and politics go hand in hand.  And the moment he died in Argentina, the entire country came to a halt.  It understood that a part of its soul had left.  And yet the poetry that Juan Gelman left us with in a beautiful style, a style that often breaks the sentences, that uses or doesn't use punctuation depending on the circumstance, also often inventing new words, lasts -- will last him and will squarely integrate him into a tradition that I think will be read for generations to come.  

JEFFREY BROWN:  Well, let me ask you to finish then with one of his poems.  And you chose a short one called "Epitaph."

I will ask you to read in the English translation for us.  

ILAN STAVANS:  My pleasure.  

"A bird lived in me.  A flower traveled in my blood.  My heart was a violin.  I loved and didn't love.  But sometimes I was loved.  I also was happy: about the spring, the hands together, what is happy.  I say man has to be!  Herein lies a bird, a flower, a violin."

JEFFREY BROWN:  All right, Ilan Stavans on the life and work of Juan Gelman, thank you so much.  

ILAN STAVANS:  My pleasure.  Thank you for giving poetry a space. 

Argentinian poet Juan Gelman as seen Oct 26, 2005 in Madrid. Photo by Philippe Desmazes/AFP/Getty Images

"The moment he died in Argentina, the entire country came to a halt. It understood that part of its soul had left," Ilan Stavans told chief arts correspondent Jeffrey Brown. Stevens is a writer and a professor of Latin American culture at Amherst College in Massachusetts.

Gelman was part of the Latin American literary tradition that Stavans said is best represented by Pablo Neruda. He would look at common, everyday experiences.

"He wanted to connect us with the environment. He wanted to connect us with the emotions that we feel and he wanted to use poetry to explain what the DNA of an entire civilization was about. The beauty of his poetry was that he found a style that connected the entire Argentine people with the continent of Latin America and the world," Stavans said.

During Argentina's "Dirty War," Gelman felt his poetry needed to reflect that world as well.

"He understood that the role of poetry was to speak truth to power ... he took [that] very seriously as a poet, he needed to bear witness to the situation that the country was going through and to allow his poetry to last beyond the daily massacres."

According to Stavans, that made Gelman influential.

"He knew that ultimately a poem is more powerful than a gun or a hand grenade and that a poem can change people's minds and that is what his poetry ended up doing."

The most widely recognized portrait of Robert Burns by Alexander Nasmyth, part of the collection of the National Galleries of Scotland.

January 25th marks the 255th anniversary of Burns' birth, and around the world, Scots and devotees of the poet alike will gather to commemorate the event with Burns Suppers -- eating haggis, raising a wee dram of whisky (whiskey to us Americans), and most importantly, reading his poetry aloud. Burns was only 37 years old when he died, but was a prolific writer, giving the world "Auld Lang Syne," "A Red, Red Rose" and "To a Mouse," among others. Listen to Scotsman and English professor Jonathan Sharp recite Burn's "Address to a Haggis," read at Burns Suppers as the haggis is cut open. (Full disclosure: Sharp is my cousin.)

In Dumfries, in addition to the Burns Night celebrations, the town has put on a display of new poems in the windowpanes of several of Burns' old stomping grounds -- The Globe Inn, The Coach and Horses Inn and the Robert Burns House Museum.

From left to right: poems displayed in a window, the Robert Burns House Museum and The Coach and Horses Inn. Photos by Hugh Bryden/Burns Windows Project

An etching about "lovely Polly Stewart" by Robert Burns in the window of the Globe Inn, Dumfries, Scotland. Photo by Peter Hughes/Dalry Burns Club.

The Burns Windows Project started three years ago, and in that time has garnered submissions by poets from Scotland, England, Ireland, Scandinavia, Europe and the United States. The curators, artist Hugh Bryden and Glasgow University English literature lecturer David Borthwick, were inspired by Burns' own window musings. Using a diamond stylus or possibly even a diamond ring, Burns would engrave his poetry or sometimes just his name in the windows of the places he stayed.

Bryden says they wondered what modern-day poets would write in the windows of a pub if given the chance. So in the first year they mailed out transparency sheets and permanent pens to poets near and far asking them to emulate Burns' example but with a modern twist.

Fifty-six poems, like those displayed above, were submitted this year, written on transparency sheets, and displayed in Dumfries windows. Photo by Hugh Bryden/Burns Windows Project

The subject matter of the poetry they get back each year is varied -- from dogs to trees to the tennis great Roger Federer. Bryden says, "We only accepted poems which were the poets own work, written in their own handwriting and signed." Now, because of rising postage costs, poets are asked to mail their work in or submit it electronically. Bryden says it's the individual handwriting that helps makes the project so special. This year's poems will remain on display around Dumfries until mid-February.

In 2009, Art Beat celebrated Robert Burn's 250th birthday with Scottish writer Andrew O'Hagan

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GWEN IFILL: Finally tonight, a very different look at conflict in Syria through the eyes of a young poet.

AMAL KASSIR, Syrian-American Poet: My name is Amal Kassir. I'm a college student. I'm a Syrian-America poet. And I use my words to inspire people.

I was born and raised in Denver. We moved to Syria in June of 2002.

My grandmother had a farm in Syria. And it is where the whole family grew up. And that's where we collaborated during the summertime.

My 60-something cousins, we would all be running around and eating the fruit. And she had pomegranate. She had so many plum trees. And the peaches, she knew when they would be ripe.

When I came back to America and came to the realization that I would never, ever again see my grandmother's farm, it was painful. The farm got taken over by regime soldiers. They cut down all of the trees and occupied it. And it didn't belong to grandma anymore.

They cut down all of the trees in her farm. They ripped the pomegranate bushes from the earth, and the lemons don't grow anymore. And the Syrian people wonder, does the tyrant not remember who fed him?

Momma is from Iowa. She's a little white girl, you know, and born in a Lutheran family. And my father is Syrian. He was born in Damascus.

MAN: We have family in Turkey. We have in Lebanon, in Jordan.

AMAL KASSIR: He came 1979. And Nebraska was where he landed.

His best friend dated my mom's sister. And so he ended up being introduced to my mom. You know, he would pay her to do his English homework, and they fell in love.

My father, he just took the path of feeding people, the way his momma fed him. This Damascus girl, my father's restaurant was the first stage I ever took, first stage. It was where I was asked about my grandmother's recipes, because that's where all of this comes from.

My grandmother always had dinner on the table. Even when the tyrant put checkpoints outside her door, her defiance made mealtime the battle her family would always win.

In the last few years, he's been responsible for killing more Palestinians.

The political message that is kind of hidden underneath the farming references, it's the fact that tyrants, at the end of the day, are going to be buried, just like everyone else. And their political establishment will crumble.

My grandmother has promised, she has sworn to write down every single recipe when this war is over. Yes, she knows what Syria will need. They know what Syria will need. They will rebuild this country with a prayer, with a meal, blistered hands and enough food to feed all of the neighbors.

And the tyrant, the dirt is waiting for him. He will learn his country, feel the weight of all of it on his chest. He will struggle against the dirt that fed him.

Thank you.

As a professor of African American studies, poet Elizabeth Alexander can't reflect on Martin Luther King Jr. Day without taking into account the full context of the man and his vision.

"I can't untether myself from history," Alexander told Art Beat.

"I think that you just can't understand an extraordinary leader like Martin Luther King and all the people that he inspired in a vacuum. You can't understand Martin Luther King apart from the ways in which he pushed people and the ways in which people didn't think he went far enough. You can't separate Martin Luther King from the fact that he was an extraordinary writer and orator who was a writer and orator in a very, very mighty black tradition. The way that he spoke and the way that he wrote did not come from nowhere."

When Alexander offered her own work in commemoration of the MLK holiday, she pulled together a series of poems that contemplate a range of history.

"I wanted to let us think about him in place and over time in hopes that that would give us a little bit more to chew on in thinking about what this day means."

And thus, Alexander begins with "Emancipation."

Emancipation

Corncob constellation, Oyster shell, drawstring pouch, dry bones.

Gris gris in the rafters. Hoodoo in the sleeping nook. Mojo in Linda Brent's crawlspace.

Nineteenth century corncob cosmogram set on the dirt floor, beneath the slant roof, left intact the afternoon that someone came and told those slaves

"We're free."

Before Alexander continued reading, she brought up some famous words from Dr. King, which he spoke a few days before his death in April 1968: "I may not make it with you. I may not make it to the mountaintop."

"There are other leaders, flawed and imperfect, who didn't get there with us, if you will, but who tried to envision freedom," she said.

And so, contemplating "charismatic leadership and how sometimes it fails," Alexander read another poem that takes place, still, before the slaves were emancipated. The poem, "Nat Turner Dreams of Insurrection," includes an epigraph from his 1832 confessions.

Nat Turner Dreams of Insurrection

Drops of blood on the corn, as dew from heaven. Forms of men in different attitudes, portrayed in blood. Numbers, glyphs, on woodland leaves, also in blood.

Freedom: a dipperful of cold well water. Freedom: the wide white sky. Dreams that make me sweat.

Because I am called, I must appear so, prepare. I am not a conjurer. Certain marks on my head and breast. Shelter me, Great Dismal Swamp. A green-blue sky which roils.

Although Alexander doesn't have poems written directly about Martin Luther King, she considers him an artist in his use of language.

"He said it himself. I'm not trying to do more with that, but what I can write about and what I did write about was different ways that his vision was made manifest by different people at different points in time."

Alexander also brings in her own life and her own experience to contemplate King's vision. She was a child in Washington, D.C., at the time and her father was active in the civil rights movement. In her poem, "Fugue," Alexander brings in that personal perspective, bringing us up to and through the time when King was assassinated and "how startling and strange and frightening that was."

Fugue

Walking (1963)

You tell me, knees are important, you kiss your elders' knees in utmost reverence.

The knees in the painting are what send the people forward.

Once progress felt real and inevitable, as sure as the taste of licorice or lemons. The painting was made after marching in Birmingham, walking

into a light both brilliant and unseen.

1964

In a beige silk sari my mother dances the frug to the Peter Duchin Band.

Earlier that day At Maison Le Pelch the French ladies twisted

her magnificent hair into a fat chignon while mademoiselle watched,

drank sugared, milky tea, and counted bobby pins disappeared into the thick-

ness as the ladies worked in silence, adornment so grave, the solemn toilette,

and later, the bath, and later, red lipstick and later, L'Air de Temps.

My mother without glasses. My mother in beige silk. My mother with a chignon. My mother in her youth.

1968

The city burns. We have to stay at home, TV always interrupted with fire or helicopters. Men who have tweedled my cheeks once or twice join the serial dead.

Yesterday I went downtown with my Mom. What a pretty little girl, said the tourists, who were white. My shoes were patent leather, all shiny, and black. My father is away saving the world for Negroes, I wanted to say

Mostly I go to school or watch television with my mother and brother, my father often gone. He makes the world a better place for Negroes. The year is nineteen-sixty-eight.

1971

"Hey Blood," my father said then to the other brothers in the street. "Hey, Youngblood, how you doin'?

"Peace and power," he says, and "Keep on keepin' on," just like Gladys Knight and the Pips.

My stomach jumps: a thrill. Sometimes poems remember small things, like "Hey, Blood." My father still says that sometimes.

When Alexander reflects on this holiday and the progress we as a country have made, it's clear that she takes into account the generations and generations of leadership that have fought for the ideals that King stood for.

"There are people before him, alongside him and after him, who are part of the movement towards justice or what we might call freedom."

That "generational transition of freedom visions and leadership" is not always so easy or so successful.

"Each generation finds its own leaders, but sometimes the older generation doesn't know how to pass on its lessons, or the younger generation doesn't know how to receive them, or new times demand new strategies. I think that generational static and how it can be overcome is a really important part of thinking about progress."

The Elders

watched him glitter, watched him gleam, shook his un-rough hands with their cotton-scarred hands, cut their eyes at him, observed the ease with which he smiled,

asked, finally, what is love, and who are The People and how must we love them and what do we need, what is now, look at the lines in the corner of youngblood's eyes, lined not unlike our hands, and perhaps this is not gleam but illumination, not merely his but ours.

Alexander tries to learn more about King every year. She continues to think "more deeply about what moves us forward and what holds us back."

"If we could take each King Day as a day to meditate on justice, and to meditate on justice not only on the large scale, not only in the language of dreams and the 'mountaintop,' but also at the very, very local level."

As part of this exercise, she challenges others to join her.

"If each of us can take a measure more of responsibility to think about what makes our environs more just ... that actually goes a long way towards moving forward the dream."

Photo by Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post/Getty Images

A poet, essayist, playwright, and teacher, Elizabeth Alexander is the chair of the African American Studies Department at Yale University. She has published six books of poems, including her most recent "Crave Radiance: New and Selected Poems from 1990-2010" (Graywolf, 2010) and "American Sublime" (Graywolf, 2005), a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. For President Barack Obama's inauguration on Jan 20, 2009, she read "Praise Song for the Day," a poem she composed for the event. "Praise Song for the Day" has since been published by Graywolf Press. Alexander was raised in Washington, D.C. "Emancipation," "Nat Turner Dreams of Insurrection," "Fugue" and "The Elders" are reprinted by permission from "Crave Radiance" (Graywolf, 2010). Copyright © 2010 by Elizabeth Alexander.

Photo of Elizabeth Alexander with each audio file by CJ Gunther

The year 2013 did not begin well for Sergei Filin, artistic director of the Moscow-based Bolshoi Ballet. Last January Filin suffered a viscous acid attack, masterminded by a jealous Bolshoi dancer Pavel Dmitrichenko. The acid caused third-degree burns and severely burned his eyes, almost completely eliminating his vision. Dmitrichenko was sentenced in December to six years in prison.

For Filin, who has returned to the Bolshoi, and his dancers, 2014 will hopefully be focused on their performances instead of drama offstage. The Bolshoi plans to tour Washington and New York this year. It will perform "Giselle" at the Kennedy Center May 20-25 and then will perform several ballets, including "Swan Lake," "Don Quixote" and "Spartacus" at the Lincoln Center Festival in July 12-27.

Moreno was born Rosita Dolores Alverio in small-town Puerto Rico during the Great Depression. She headed to work as an entertainer at 13 and was on Broadway and Hollywood before she was 20. Still working today, Moreno is best known her roles in "The King & I," "Gypsy" and as Anita in "West Side Story." It was that final film role that earned her the Academy Award for best supporting actress.

In October, Moreno sat down with former NewsHour correspondent Ray Suarez to talk about her recently published memoir and what like and work in Hollywood was like as a Hispanic actress.

"I have played Polynesian. I have played an Arabian girl. I played an East Indian girl. And what was so confusing about that, which I mention in my book, is that I assumed I had to have an accent," said Moreno.

"Nobody said anything, so I made up what I call the universal ethnic accent, and they all sounded alike. It didn't matter who I was playing."

Times have changed in Hollywood, with more roles for more diverse actors. "The door is certainly more open than it was for [Latino Americans]," said Moreno, but she thinks the film industrry could stand to change even more.

"I'm still waiting to see an actor or actress of Hispanic descent being offered a role that is worthy perhaps of an Oscar nomination ... our people, our actors have yet gotten something that's really very, very strong and meaningful."

Rita Moreno also spoke with NewsHour correspondent Spencer Michels in September 2011 about "Life Without Makeup," her then-new solo show about her life on stage.

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GWEN IFILL: A recently released movie about the peculiar institution known as slavery in America is drawing attention and praise for an emotional and brutal portrayal largely unseen in Hollywood.

"12 Years a Slave," directed by Steve McQueen, is based on an 1853 autobiography of free man turned slave Solomon Northup.

Jeffrey Brown has our conversation with one of the filmmakers.

JEFFREY BROWN: When we first meet Northup, he's a well-educated carpenter and musician living with his wife and children in Saratoga Springs, New York. The film follows as he's kidnapped and sold into slavery, experiencing all its brutality and forced to hide his identity and education, for fear of punishment or death.

In this scene, he encounters the wife of a cruel Louisiana plantation owner.

ACTRESS: This is a list of goods and sundries. You will take it to be filled and return immediately. Take the tag. Tell Bartholomew to add it to our debt.

CHIWETEL EJIOFOR, actor: Yes, missus.

ACTRESS: Where you from?

CHIWETEL EJIOFOR: I told you.

ACTRESS: Tell me again.

CHIWETEL EJIOFOR: Washington.

ACTRESS: Who were your master?

CHIWETEL EJIOFOR: Master name of Freeman.

ACTRESS: Was he a learned man?

CHIWETEL EJIOFOR: I suppose so.

ACTRESS: He learn to you read?

CHIWETEL EJIOFOR: A word here or there, but I have no understanding of the written text.

ACTRESS: Well, don't trouble yourself with it. Same as the rest, master brought you here to work. That's all. Any more will earn you a hundred lashes.

JEFFREY BROWN: John Ridley wrote the screenplay for "12 Years a Slave." He's also written for television, authored several novels, and directed two films of his own.

Well, welcome to you.

Tell us first about this person, Solomon Northup, and the book it is based on, and your own experience of encountering it for the first time.

JOHN RIDLEY, "12 Years a Slave": Solomon is a truly remarkable individual.

And one of the interesting things is, after he was freed from slavery for 12 years, his story, his memoir called "12 Years a Slave" was really quite well-known here in America. It sold nearly 30,000 copies. He toured. He talked about it. Many abolitionists credit his story with helping drive their movement.

And then it really -- it disappeared from the cultural consciousness. Steve McQueen and I, the director of the film, we sat down about four or five years ago and had breakfast, talked about many things. And in the course of this discussion, he stumbled upon the book. He gave it to me.

I read it and thought it was a really singular document in how evocative it was, how the clarity of how Solomon talked about his experience. And we both decided that this story in particular was worth telling and in a way that really introduced in some ways America to slavery, in the sense that it had not been excavated the way that Steve in particular wanted to do with this film and the story.

JEFFREY BROWN: Well, tell us a little bit more about that, because what were you -- what were you after in telling the story, what kind of portrait that you felt needed to be told?

JOHN RIDLEY: I think two things.

For me, as a writer, there was an emotional honesty and emotional velocity with Solomon and his story. You have to understand, at that time, for a lot of people of color, particularly slaves, as you saw in that clip, to read and write was a death sentence. So, comparatively, there were very few first-person narratives of what it was like to live through and to survive slavery.

I think, for Steve as a filmmaker, he wanted to render these images, the beautiful ones, the difficult ones, with a level of authenticity that for a lot of people has not been seen in film or in television. For most people, their visual experiences with slavery were "Gone With the Wind,' things like that, or "Django," which may be an entertaining film, but went at slavery with a very -- a different mind-set.

For us, again, we wanted an emotional honesty. And that's what we tried to achieve in every step of the way in every department, with the look, with the performances, and certainly for me from the script.

JEFFREY BROWN: You mentioned something like "Gone With the Wind."

A lot of people have noted the -- there is a long history here and a tradition of looking at the Civil War and at slavery in particular. Were you consciously working for it again in some case or against that portrayal in others?

JOHN RIDLEY: For me, it was trying to be honest to the source material.

But since the film has started to roll out -- and we're just reaching a national density at this point -- one of the things that has really surprised me -- and this is not for any kind of person in particular or any race of people -- but I was shocked at how many people really didn't understand how brutal the system of slavery was, how pervasive it was in its indoctrination of all individuals.

And I think that's because, here in Hollywood, we have done a really poor job of representing the facts of slavery. So, yes, you go to big costume dramas like "Gone With the Wind' that over the decades has really reached a point that that is folks' reference force slavery. Slavery was not a bad day on the job. It was not your boss yelling at you. It was not hard work for little pay.

This was a full system of human subjugation. And to do that, you have to get everyone to be complicit. And, look, we're not prisoners to the past, but when you see where we are in 2013 and why some of our views about race are so calcified, you have to understand that the indoctrination of slavery in this country for such a long time, it's the reason we are, unfortunately, still where we are about race relations.

JEFFREY BROWN: Well, and having seen the film, I know that you do not spare the audience. You do not spare us much of the -- it's the daily violence, the whippings, the rape that were almost routine.

I wonder, were there discussions among you and Steve McQueen and others about how far to go? I mean, you're trying to be realistic, but you also -- it's a film that people are going to see.

JOHN RIDLEY: Yes, I think in some ways you have to compare where the language of cinema is.

We have just come out of a summer season -- and I don't say this in an overly disparaging way -- but where entire cities were torn down and people just shrugged because of the level of violence and the scale of destruction and within that language of cinema.

With this film, I think it's because you care about the people and because we take so much time to show these lives and show these individuals as humans that, on the occasion -- and, really, when you break down the film, there are three or four moments that are very difficult -- it means that much more because we see these individuals as people.

And we never wanted to flinch from these moments either, the beauty, the humanity, the family nature that is going on here, or things that are difficult, by the way, that aren't very barbaric in terms of the physicality. But when you see a mother being torn away from her children and somebody's response is, have a meal and you will forget about them, that hurts because we care.

And that was our objective at every moment, to humanize these very dehumanizing moments in the history of slavery.

JEFFREY BROWN: Just in our last 30 seconds here, but I am wondering, given the response to it, the very positive response, do you think this signals a new openness to looking at difficult parts of our history?

JOHN RIDLEY: I think it's an openness to looking at our history and looking at history at not just being African-American history or white American history. This is our history.

And to move forward in it, we have got to learn and we have got to grow. And I'm very gratified that people are willing to sit and learn.

JEFFREY BROWN: John Ridley is screenwriter of "12 Years a Slave."

Thanks so much.

JOHN RIDLEY: Thank you for having me.

Early Thursday morning the Oscar nominations were announced in Los Angeles.

But, before the Academy decides, we at Art Beat want to hear from you. Tell us, what -- and who -- should win at the Academy Awards this year?

We will tally up the results and then come March 2, check back to see how close your predictions are to the outcomes.

Which film should win the Oscar for Best Picture?

Which actor should win the Oscar for his performance in a leading role?

Which actress should win the Oscar for her performance in a leading role?

Which actor should win the Oscar for his performance in a supporting role?

Which actress should win the Oscar for her performance in a supporting role?

Which film should win the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature?

Which writer should win the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay?

Which writer should win the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay?

The announcements are in! This year's Oscar nominations were released Thursday morning by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

"American Hustle" and "Gravity" lead the pack with 10 nominations and "12 Years a Slave" is not far behind with nine. Those films will be competing in many of the same categories, including Best Picture and Best Director.

The 86th Academy Awards will be hosted by Ellen DeGeneres on March 2.

Until then, the nominees for this year's Oscars are ...

Best Picture

Chiwetel Ejiofor in "12 Years a Slave." Courtesy Fox Searchlight

"American Hustle;" Produced by Charles Roven, Richard Suckle, Megan Ellison, and Jonathan Gordon "Captain Phillips;" Produced by Scott Rudin, Dana Brunetti and Michael De Luca, Producers "Dallas Buyers Club;" Produced by Robbie Brenner and Rachel Winter, Producers "Gravity;" Produced by Alfonso Cuarón and David Heyman, Producers "Her;" Produced by Megan Ellison, Spike Jonze and Vincent Landay, Producers "Nebraska;" Produced by Albert Berger and Ron Yerxa, Producers "Philomena;" Produced by Gabrielle Tana, Steve Coogan and Tracey Seaward, Producers "12 Years a Slave;" Produced by Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Steve McQueen and Anthony Katagas, Producers "The Wolf of Wall Street;" Nominees to be determined

Best Actor in a Leading Role Christian Bale; "American Hustle" Bruce Dern; "Nebraska" Leonardo DiCaprio; "The Wolf of Wall Street" Chiwetel Ejiofor; "12 Years a Slave" Matthew McConaughey; "Dallas Buyers Club"

Best Actress in a Leading Role Amy Adams; "American Hustle" Cate Blanchett; "Blue Jasmine" Sandra Bullock; "Gravity" Judi Dench; "Philomena" Meryl Streep; "August: Osage County"

Best Actor in a Supporting Role Barkhad Abdi, "Captain Phillips" Bradley Cooper, "American Hustle" Michael Fassbender, "12 Years a Slave" Jonah Hill; "The Wolf of Wall Street" Jared Leto; "Dallas Buyers Club"

Best Actress in a Supporting Role Sally Hawkins; "Blue Jasmine" Jennifer Lawrence; "American Hustle Lupita Nyong'o; "12 Years a Slave" Julia Roberts; "August: Osage County" June Squibb; "Nebraska"

Best Animated Feature "The Croods;" Chris Sanders, Kirk DeMicco and Kristine Belson "Despicable Me 2;" Chris Renaud, Pierre Coffin and Chris Meledandri "Ernest & Celestine;" Benjamin Renner and Didier Brunner "Frozen;" Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee and Peter Del Vecho "The Wind Rises;" Hayao Miyazaki and Toshio Suzuki Best Animated Short Film "Feral;" Daniel Sousa and Dan Golden "Get a Horse!" Lauren MacMullan and Dorothy McKim "Mr. Hublot;" Laurent Witz and Alexandre Espigares "Possessions;" Shuhei Morita "Room on the Broom;" Max Lang and Jan Lachauer

Best Cinematography "The Grandmaster;" Philippe Le Sourd "Gravity;" Emmanuel Lubezki "Inside Llewyn Davis;" Bruno Delbonnel "Nebraska;" Phedon Papamichael "Prisoners;" Roger A. Deakins

Best Costume Design "American Hustle;" Michael Wilkinson "The Grandmaster;" William Chang Suk Ping "The Great Gatsby;" Catherine Martin "The Invisible Woman;" Michael O'Connor "12 Years a Slave;" Patricia Norris

Best Director "American Hustle;" David O. Russell "Gravity;" Alfonso Cuarón "Nebraska;" Alexander Payne "12 Years a Slave;" Steve McQueen "The Wolf of Wall Street;" Martin Scorsese

Best Documentary Feature

"The Act of Killing;" Joshua Oppenheimer and Signe Byrge Sørensen "Cutie and the Boxer;" Zachary Heinzerling and Lydia Dean Pilcher "Dirty Wars;" Richard Rowley and Jeremy Scahill "The Square;" Jehane Noujaim and Karim Amer "20 Feet from Stardom;" Nominees to be determined

Best Documentary Short "CaveDigger;" Jeffrey Karoff "Facing Fear;" Jason Cohen "Karama Has No Walls;" Sara Ishaq "The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life;" Malcolm Clarke and Nicholas Reed "Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall;" Edgar Barens

Best Film Editing "American Hustle;" Jay Cassidy, Crispin Struthers and Alan Baumgarten "Captain Phillips;" Christopher Rouse "Dallas Buyers Club;" John Mac McMurphy and Martin Pensa "Gravity;" Alfonso Cuarón and Mark Sanger "12 Years a Slave;" Joe Walker

Best Foreign Language Film "The Broken Circle Breakdown;" Belgium "The Great Beauty;" Italy "The Hunt;" Denmark "The Missing Picture;" Cambodia "Omar;" Palestine

Best Live Action Short Film "Aquel No Era Yo (That Wasn't Me);" Esteban Crespo "Avant Que De Tout Perdre (Just Before Losing Everything);" Xavier Legrand and Alexandre Gavras "Helium;" Anders Walter and Kim Magnusson "Pitääkö Mun Kaikki Hoitaa? (Do I Have to Take Care of Everything?);" Selma Vilhunen and Kirsikka Saari "The Voorman Problem;" Mark Gill and Baldwin Li

Best Makeup and Hairstyling

"Dallas Buyers Club;" Adruitha Lee and Robin Mathews "Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa;" Stephen Prouty "The Lone Ranger;" Joel Harlow and Gloria Pasqua-Casny

Best Original Score "The Book Thief;" John Williams "Gravity;" Steven Price "Her;" William Butler and Owen Pallett "Philomena;" Alexandre Desplat "Saving Mr. Banks;" Thomas Newman

Best Original Song "Alone Yet Not Alone" from "Alone Yet Not Alone" -- Music by Bruce Broughton; Lyric by Dennis Spiegel "Happy" from "Despicable Me 2" -- Music and Lyric by Pharrell Williams "Let it Go" from "Frozen" -- Music and Lyric by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez "The Moon Song" from "Her" -- Music by Karen O; Lyric by Karen O and Spike Jonze "Ordinary Love" from "Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom" -- Music by Paul Hewson, Dave Evans, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen; Lyric by Paul Hewson

Best Production Design

"American Hustle;" Judy Becker (Production Design); Heather Loeffler (Set Decoration) "Gravity;" Andy Nicholson (Production Design); Rosie Goodwin and Joanne Woollard (Set Decoration) "The Great Gatsby;" Catherine Martin (Production Design); Beverley Dunn (Set Decoration) "Her;" K.K. Barrett (Production Design); Gene Serdena (Set Decoration) "12 Years a Slave;" Adam Stockhausen (Production Design); Alice Baker (Set Decoration)

Best Sound Editing "All Is Lost;" Steve Boeddeker and Richard Hymns "Captain Phillips;" Oliver Tarney "Gravity;" Glenn Freemantle "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug;" Brent Burge "Lone Survivor;" Wylie Stateman

Best Sound Mixing "Captain Phillips;" Chris Burdon, Mark Taylor, Mike Prestwood Smith and Chris Munro "Gravity;" Skip Lievsay, Niv Adiri, Christopher Benstead and Chris Munro "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug;" Christopher Boyes, Michael Hedges, Michael Semanick and Tony Johnson "Inside Llewyn Davis;" Skip Lievsay, Greg Orloff and Peter F. Kurland "Lone Survivor;" Andy Koyama, Beau Borders and David Brownlow

Best Visual Effects "Gravity;" Tim Webber, Chris Lawrence, Dave Shirk and Neil Corbould "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug;" Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton and Eric Reynolds "Iron Man 3;" Christopher Townsend, Guy Williams, Erik Nash and Dan Sudick "The Lone Ranger;" Tim Alexander, Gary Brozenich, Edson Williams and John Frazier "Star Trek Into Darkness;" Roger Guyett, Patrick Tubach, Ben Grossmann and Burt Dalton

Best Adapted Screenplay "Before Midnight;" Written by Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke "Captain Phillips;" Screenplay by Billy Ray "Philomena;" Screenplay by Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope "12 Years a Slave;" Screenplay by John Ridley "The Wolf of Wall Street;" Screenplay by Terence Winter

Best Original Screenplay "American Hustle;" Written by Eric Warren Singer and David O. Russell "Blue Jasmine;" Written by Woody Allen "Dallas Buyers Club;" Written by Craig Borten & Melisa Wallack "Her;" Written by Spike Jonze "Nebraska;" Written by Bob Nelson

One film that the cinema world kept an eye on is Steve McQueen's "12 Years a Slave."

At Sunday's Golden Globes ceremony, the movie won Best Motion Picture Drama and was nominated for six other awards, including best screen play.

Screenwriter John Ridley spoke to PBS NewsHour's Jeffrey Brown in November about his film, adapted from the 1853 autobiography of the free black Solomon Northup, who was kidnapped into slavery.

"Solomon is a truly remarkable individual and one of the interesting things is after he was freed from slavery for 12 years, his story, his memoir called "12 Years a Slave" was really quite well known here in America," said Ridley.

"It sold nearly 30,000 copies... many abolitionists credit it with helping drive their movement and then it really disappeared from the cultural consciousness."

Ridley and McQueen were concerned by the misconceptions about slavery and the "poor job" of Hollywood in bringing that part of American history to the big screen. The pair tried to find an "emotional honesty" in their depictions.

"I was shocked at how many people really didn't understand how brutal the system of slavery was, how pervasive it was in the indoctrination of all individuals ... This was a full system of human subjugation and to do that you have to get everyone to be complicit."

For Ridley, "12 Years a Slave" is a story that not everyone will understand, but it's one that resonates with present day America on a deep level.

"We're not prisoners to the past, but when you see where we are in 2013 and why some of our views about race are so calcified, you have to understand that indoctrination of slavery in this country for such a long time. It's the reason we are unfortunately, still where we are in race relation," Ridley continued.

"This is our history and to move forward in it, we've got to learn, we've to grow and I'm very gratified that people are willing to sit and grow." Today, ABC announced that John Ridley will be the writer and executive producer of a new pilot called "American Crime," a show about the law and race relations.

While debate raged about the prospect of liquidating the collection at the Detroit Institute of Art, U.S. Chief District Judge Gerald Rosen, the federal mediator in the Detroit bankruptcy, came up with an innovative, alternative solution.

Rosen called the head of Community Foundations for Southeastern Michigan to see if foundations might be interested in buying the museum from the city, thereby providing millions of dollars. That money would then be used to save pensions, which are currently on the bankruptcy chopping block.

Calls were made to foundations, and on Monday Rosen announced the pledge of $330 million by nine organizations, including both influential, national foundations and smaller, local groups.

In 2003, the DIA was the second largest municipality-owned museum in the U.S.

According to the Detroit Free Press, that level of support, specifically through a coalition of foundations, is unprecedented.

But does this deal have legs? The total pledged is $170 million less than Rosen's original goal of $500 million. Will that smaller sum be enough for unions aiming to protect pensions?

The museum has asked the state for money to protect the art, offering in return an expansion of statewide exhibitions and educational programs. As of now, it is unknown whether the state will add money to the pot.

The Detroit Free Press also reported that other creditors are likely to be unsatisfied and will continue to push for liquidating the DIA assets.

Christie's auction house appraised part of the collection at $454 million to $867 million in a report commissioned by the city and released in December. That audit only took into account the 2,773 works of art purchased with city funds, not the 66,000 works that are in the collection and owned by the city. Other creditors believe it's worth billions of dollars.

If the deal does go through, the museum and its collection will be safe.

"The city would have no claim on any of the art. So it would permanently shield the museum from the vagaries of municipal finances," Mark Stryker, the arts reporter for the Detroit Free Press told Art Beat.

In December, Detroit Public Television premiered it's documentary "Detroit Art City: The Detroit Institute of Arts Story," which tells of the story of the one of America's most significant art collections and how its fate came to rest in a legal battle over the Motor City's future.

The Terror

When we come full circle to the rose garden in the Imaginary will we remember the Terror

the names who crimes are invented in order to have something else to kill the king's absent face at the window

across from the dock the names of the trains that run on time for the first time

I think of this when I read of the stupidity of princes with breakfast, by midday

the stock market has made one of them rich and part of my breakfast has bought his lunch

and paid someone to espalier his roses across an adobe wall they never die, the pronouns

become so malleable they refer to anyone but never oneself

something must be exchanged for the privilege of joining a word to its source , something must not fit

for its replacement to be the wrong size then the Terror begins in the hot weather

when they drain all the pools and the bidding wars keep them empty the contractor who will inherit the earth

is figuring out how to do it even as we speak just listen

Photo by Sophia Davidson

Michael Davidson is a professor of literature at University of California, San Diego. Davidson has published five other books of poetry, including "The Arcades" (O Books, 1998). "Bleed Through: New and Selected Poems" (Coffee House Press, 2013), published in December, is his first book of poems in 15 years. "The Terror" is reprinted by permission from Bleed Through (Coffee House Press, 2013). Copyright © 2013 by Michael Davidson.

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JUDY WOODRUFF: Finally tonight: Author Kate DiCamillo today became the newest national ambassador for young people's literature, a post created by the Library of Congress in 2008 to promote literature for children.

Jeffrey Brown talked with her earlier this week.

JEFFREY BROWN: Kate DiCamillo says she was the shyest child in the world, the kind of kid who wouldn't say boo to a goose.

Well, she found her voice as a writer of stories for young people. Among her bestselling books are "Because of Winn-Dixie," the recent "Flora and Ulysses," and Newbery Award-winning "Tale of Despereaux."

She will spend the next two years as both author and ambassador for stories and reading.

Kate DiCamillo lives in Minneapolis and joins us from there.

And congratulations to you. And it's nice to talk to you again.

KATE DICAMILLO, U.S. National Ambassador for Young People's Literature: Well, thank you very much for being willing to talk to me. Let's talk books.

JEFFREY BROWN: So, the shyest -- the shyest child in the world becomes a national ambassador.

(LAUGHTER)

JEFFREY BROWN: How did that happen?

KATE DICAMILLO: Well, I know. There's a really rich irony in that, isn't there?

And I am not exaggerating -- well, I do tend to exaggerate. I'm a storyteller, but, really, I was just like -- if I had a dime for every time an adult said, "Cat got your tongue?"

You know, and my mother was a very outgoing person. And she could never believe that I couldn't run into the store and ask somebody some kind of question. So how did I end up here? I ended up here by telling stories.

And telling stories helped me connect with the world. And it turned me into somebody who can talk to people, I think. I don't know. I'm doing a pretty good job talking to you. Right?

JEFFREY BROWN: You are.

(LAUGHTER)

JEFFREY BROWN: Well, so tell us what you -- how you see this role and what you plan. Is it -- do you start off thinking that there is a problem that you need to address, a problem of young people and reading?

KATE DICAMILLO: I want to remind people -- I don't want to think about it as a problem.

I want to remind people of the great and profound joy that can be found in stories, and that stories can connect us to each other, and that reading together changes everybody involved. So I am not coming at it from a problem angle. I'm coming at it from a celebration angle. That's how I would like to think of it.

JEFFREY BROWN: What books did that for you, brought you out of the shell you were talking about?

KATE DICAMILLO: Well, one of them -- and I was a kid who loved to read and also a kid who was lucky enough to have a -- I had a mom that read to me all the time.

"Island of the Blue Dolphins" by Scott O'Dell had a huge impact on me. "Harriet the Spy," Louise Fitzhugh. I remember my mother reading me Beverly Cleary's "Ribsy."

All of those books kind of did that thing of connecting me to myself and connecting me to the world and connecting me to the people around me. So that is kind of the message that I want to carry out into world. That's what I hope to do.

JEFFREY BROWN: And do you think of -- is reading reading, or does it matter what young people are reading? I'm thinking about some of the books that gained tremendous currency, like "The Hunger Games" now and other ones you can think of at different times.

Do you think just whatever they're reading is good, or do you think there -- certain things are more nourishing than others?

KATE DICAMILLO: Well, I'm not going to make judgments about what people are reading.

I just want them to be reading. And I think reading one book leads to another book. So, I am just going to celebrate the whole ball of wax. I just want people -- I also want people to know that this is -- you know, that kids books can be for adults as well. There are a lot of different ways to connect to a story.

And I think "Harry Potter" has actually gone a long way to convincing people that adults can read kid books. But I would like to just bring more people into the room.

JEFFREY BROWN: The other thing that becomes part of this conversation of course, these days is technology and that sort of competition for the young people's attention.

Do you think of all these things, the -- you know, whether it's video games or tablets, do you think of them as the enemy, or is there a way to make them friends? How do you think about it?

KATE DICAMILLO: I think that it's a matter of balance and moderation.

And I think that my role here is just to remind everybody of the power of story and it can be just as entertaining and engaging as a video game. So, again, I'm not going to say, no, don't do that, but, rather, remember story. And story is what makes us human in a way. So, I just -- I'm here to say story can be a powerful thing.

JEFFREY BROWN: I remember when we first talked. And now it's 10 years ago...

KATE DICAMILLO: Yes.

JEFFREY BROWN: ... when you won the Newbery Award.

But you came to writing late yourself, right? This wasn't -- you weren't a natural.

KATE DICAMILLO: Yes.

JEFFREY BROWN: You just sort of came into it.

KATE DICAMILLO: No, I'm not a natural. I'm a late bloomer.

And I feel so fortunate to have ended up where I have ended up, as somebody who gets to tell stories for a living. But I didn't start writing until I was almost 30 years old. And I didn't get published until I was 36 or 37.

So -- but it was something that I always knew that I wanted to do. And I finally sat down and started trying to do it. So, hey, let's hear it for all the late bloomers and for dreams coming true, right?

JEFFREY BROWN: And I think I read that -- this is a little hard for me to believe, but maybe you can tell me -- you received 450 rejection letters before anyone agreed to publish you?

KATE DICAMILLO: I wish that I could tell you that that is erroneous.

(LAUGHTER)

KATE DICAMILLO: But it is not.

I kept a notebook where I kept track of everything, where I sent it, when it came back. So that is the case. So, I sent stories out for six years before anything happened. And when I go and I talk to kids, I go, imagine if I had given up at like the -- the rejection letter, you know, 200. I wouldn't be here.

So if there is any message that I can give in that respect, it's, you know, persistence and not giving up on your dream.

JEFFREY BROWN: All right.

Well, Kate DiCamillo, congratulations again. And good luck in your new role, the national ambassador for young people's literature.

Thanks so much.

KATE DICAMILLO: Thank you.

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JUDY WOODRUFF: Now, Jeffrey Brown continues his series with U.S. poet laureate Natasha Trethewey called "Where Poetry Lives," taking us to places where poetry and literature connect to everyday life.

In past stories, they visited a program for Alzheimer's patients in New York, and one in Detroit that encourages young students to write about themselves and their city.

Tonight, a different kind of connection, through the practice of medicine and healing.

JEFFREY BROWN: Outside Boston's Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital on a recent frigid morning, Natasha Trethewey met up with a former poetry student of hers from Emory University.

Do you remember her as a teacher?

SAMYUKTA MULLANGI, student at Harvard Medical School: Of course I do.

(LAUGHTER)

JEFFREY BROWN: And Natasha remembers Sam, Samyukta Mullangi, fondly as well.

Now you get to see her as a budding doctor-to-be.

NATASHA TRETHEWEY, U.S. poet laureate: Yes, and she looks like the best, too. Seeing her talk about not only the work of being a physician, but also how poetry and language has a role in that.

JEFFREY BROWN: Sam is a fourth-year student at Harvard Medical School, but poetry is still a big part of her life, now with a new mentor who believes poetry can benefit every doctor's education and work, Rafael Campo.

DR. RAFAEL CAMPO, Harvard Medical School: I agree, Sam, totally clear.

JEFFREY BROWN:  Doctor, professor and a highly regarded poet. His sixth volume, just published, is titled "Alternative Medicine."

RAFAEL CAMPO: "Someone is dying alone in the night. The hospital hums like a consciousness. I see their faces where others see blight. The doctors make their rounds like satellites, impossible to fathom distances. Someone is dying alone under lights."

Poetry is in every encounter with my patients. I think healing really in a very profound way is about poetry, And If we do anything when we're with our patients, we're really, I think, immersing ourselves in their stories, really hearing their voices in a profound way. And, certainly, that's what a poem, I think, does.

JEFFREY BROWN: Campo worries that something important has been lost in medicine and medical education today, a humanity that he finds in poetry.

To that end, he leads a weekly reading and writing workshop for medical students and residents. And on the night we joined, the group explored one of Campo's central themes, the occasional disconnect between medical facts and human truths.

RAFAEL CAMPO: Sometimes facts become all-consuming in our work as docs and we may risk losing sight of some of the truths of the experience of illness, particularly from the perspective of our patients.

WOMAN: It's interesting to think about how there's a roomful of surgeons who perceive one truth from this case and the family wanted everything done, everything done. And they were living with a different truth, right, which is that this is their family member. They want any day extra possible with this person.

JEFFREY BROWN: Campo thinks medical training focuses too much on distancing the doctor from his or her patients, and poems like one he brought for his students to read, Marilyn Hacker's "Cancer Winter," can help close that gap.

WOMAN: "The hovering swarm has nothing to forgive. Your voice petitions the indifferent night, I don't know how to die yet. Let me live."

RAFAEL CAMPO: There's confrontation really with mortality. How does the poem make that happen?

WOMAN: We have this universal experience with mortality, and the speaker sort of invites us to grapple with it.

NATASHA TRETHEWEY: The way she shows us the landscape transformed through the lens of a diagnosis. To know this now means you see ruin.

JEFFREY BROWN: Third-year resident Andrea Schwartz (ph) was one of the workshop regulars who read her own poetry.

WOMAN: "The whiteness of her mother's knuckles while we told her we couldn't promise a cure. After the call, I imagined the translator hanging up his receiver into the silence of his office, unable to break beyond his role to offer condolence or hope."

JEFFREY BROWN: The next day, Natasha and her former student compared notes.

NATASHA TRETHEWEY: One of the things we also talk about is the way that poetry connects us to the experience of other human beings. And we saw -- I thought I saw that in wonderful detail in some of the poems that we read in the workshop last night.

SAMYUKTA MULLANGI: I was thinking about this yesterday as well, and it's that, outside of writing itself, I think there's no other profession other than medicine that produces as many writers as it does.

And I think because there's just so much power, I think, in physicians and patients interacting when patients are at their most vulnerable and at their most human.

JEFFREY BROWN: Natasha and I, of course, are typically in that patient role when we meet doctors, and this was a rare look behind the medical curtain.

NATASHA TRETHEWEY: When I heard that Dr. Campo talking yesterday about taking histories from patients and what's necessary to hear, I thought about language and the way that we use language in poetry and to try to get to something precise, to try to find a way to describe what is happening inside the body through the kind of precise language.

It's not just the scale of pain that they keep talking about, but also using metaphor to be as precise as possible about what we are feeling as patients. If I could describe the pain metaphorically like, you know, being hit by a truck or having a knife go into my abdomen.

JEFFREY BROWN: Right. You're hearing them talk about different ways of using language. That's like poetry.

NATASHA TRETHEWEY: That's what poets do.

JEFFREY BROWN: Not everyone's convinced that's what doctors should do, though.

I saw in an essay you wrote where you said it was hard for you to admit to other doctors that you were a poet.

RAFAEL CAMPO: That's right. Yes, I sort of had to come out as a poet.

(LAUGHTER)

RAFAEL CAMPO: It was difficult.

I was afraid of how people might judge me, actually, and how my colleagues might perceive me. Another ethos in the medical profession, as many people know, is the sense that medicine is all-consuming and that we must always put the clinical emergency first.

(CROSSTALK)

JEFFREY BROWN: You are not going to write a sonnet at that moment.

RAFAEL CAMPO: I'm not writing a sonnet at that moment.

But, you know, that -- often, that kind of an intervention or that kind of an interaction results, if it's happening in the hospital, very regrettably, sadly, results in a bad outcome. The family is sitting by the bedside. The patient hasn't survived the arrhythmia. Don't we still have a role as healers there?

"Obesity writ large no more, Alzheimer's forgotten. We could live carefree again."

JEFFREY BROWN: In a poem titled "Health," Campo writes of the desire to live forever in a world made painless by our incurable joy.

He says he will continue mentoring students, helping patients and writing poems, his own brand of alternative medicine.

For Kate DiCamillo, the author of award-winning children's novels, "Because of Winn-Dixie" and "Tale of Despereaux," reading changes people.

DiCamillo was recently named the Library of Congress' National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, a two-year position dedicated to promoting children's literature.

DiCamillo was raised reading Scott O'Dell's "Island of Blue Dolphins" and Louise Fitzhugh's "Harriet the Spy" which helped her appreciate the joy of storytelling. She read every Beverly Cleary novel to develop her writing skills and quickly embraced the power of children's books to appeal to adults as well as youths.

"I was about 32 years old ... reading about (Cleary's) Ramona in Kindergarten and I was engaged."

This cross-generational love of reading is a part of DiCamillo's goals to "bring more people into the room." Just as a video game can be entertaining and bring a family together, DiCamillo's message to parents is to set the example that reading is neither chore nor responsibility, but a privilege. "Read out loud together as a family. Stories are what make us human."

Because of the recent spate of school closings and sub-zero temperatures across the country, we asked DiCamillo, the new National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, to recommend books perfect for kids stuck inside:

E. B. White's "Charlotte's Web" and "Stuart Little,"

"The Borrowers" by Mary Norton

"Wonder" by R.J. Palacio

"Bridge to Terabithia" by Katherine Paterson

"The Watsons Go to Birmingham -- 1963" by Christopher Paul Curtis

For more suggestions, we asked our friends at the Library of Congress' Young Readers Center to share some new titles. See their lists of award-winning books selected by distinguished and credible literary organizations:

American Library Association Notables and Award Winners/Honor Books

Pre-K-Grade 2

"Creepy Carrots!" by Aaron Reynolds. Illustrated by Peter Brown (Simon & Schuster)

"Extra Yarn" by Mac Barnett. Illustrated by Jon Klassen (HarperCollins/Balzer and Bray)

"Green" written and illustrated by Laura Vaccaro Seeger. (Roaring Brook/Neal Porter)

Grades 3-5

"Electric Ben: The Amazing Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin" written and illustrated by Robert Byrd (Dial/Penguin)

"Bomb: The Race to Build -- and Steal -- the World's Largest Most Dangerous Weapon" by Steve Sheinkin (Roaring Brook/Flash Point)

"The One and Only Ivan" by Katherine Applegate. Illustrated by Patricia Castelao (HarperCollins/Harper)

Grades 6-8

"Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe" by Benjamin Saenz (Simon & Schuster/Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)

"A Game for Swallows: To Die, to Leave, to Return" written and illustrated by Zeina Abirached (Lerne/Graphic Universe)

"My Family for the War" by Anne C. Voorhoeve. Trans. By Tammi Reichel (Dial/Penguin)

Young Adult Library Services Association -- Best of 2013

Young Adult Fiction

"Me and Earl and the Dying Girl" by Jesse Andrews (Abrams/Amulet Books)

"The Diviners" by Libba Bray (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)

"Seraphina" by Rachel Hartman (Random House/ Random House Books for Young Readers)

Graphic Novels -- Non-fiction

"My Friend Dahmer" by Derf Backderf (Adams)

"Trinity: A Graphic History of the First Atomic Bomb" by Jonathan Fetter-Vorm (Farrar, Straus and Giroux/Hill and Wang)

"Annie Sullivan and the Trials of Helen Keller" by Joseph Lambert (Disney/Hyperion/Disney Book Group).

Graphic Novels -- Fiction

"Ultimate Comics Spider-man V.1." by Brian Michael Bendis and Sara Pichelli (Marvel)

"Friends with Boys" by Faith Erin Hicks (Roaring Brook/First Second)

"A Flight of Angels" by Alisa Kwitney, Rebecca Guay and others (DC/Vertigo)

This post was updated on January 9, 2014. An earlier version of the video and the text said that Kate DiCamillo recommended Rebecca Makkai's "The Borrower," not "The Borrowers" by Mary Norton.

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Spots

And so once again Father Time and said to Mother Nature, "Mother, put a few more of those brown spots on him, please," and so she did, dutifully and without malice she placed them here and there among the others she had left before as gentle reminders, though if you've ever looked in the mirror and noticed several there weren't there the night before ... I lose my train of thought, it was on Herrengracht the cobblestones were irregular for pedestrian feet such as mine so I kept looking down when I most wanted to look straight ahead and around. "The Earth is a cobblestone," said Father Time to Mother Nature, but she made no reply for she did not like fancy allusions to her cousin Mother Earth. The kitchen became edgy for a moment and then it passed, the edginess, that is along with the moment: both were moved along to the area of Past Experiences and form there shunted into The Forgotten.

But I remember it was my birthday and my mother is large with me and her mind is full of ironing like music you can't stop hearing in your head, the music of ironing, and so me, first a spot, then a boy with a dog named Spot, and now a man on whom more spots are arriving in the night, when Mother Nature makes her rounds and Father Time keeps the watch.

Before Ron Padgett read "Spots" during a phone call with Art Beat in December, he called it "another geezer poem."

"That poem is about becoming an old person and getting liver spots on you. You don't write those poems when you're 19. It doesn't seem like a very interesting subject."

Padgett recently published his collected poems, works he has written from the age of 19 all the way to his more recent compositions from the last decade. More than 50 years of poems that span a lifetime and, as indicated by "Spots," the changing interests that come with getting older.

Padgett wrote the poem in a way that he wouldn't have if he were in another mood, he said. "I put it into this kind of fairy tale-like setting. I have these characters, Father Time and Mother Nature."

"Spots" is almost an autobiographical poem, both in terms of his life and in terms of his experience composing it.

Starting at the beginning when Padgett reads, "if / you've ever looked in the mirror / and noticed several there weren't there / the night before ... I lose / my train of thought, it was on Herrengracht / the cobblestones were irregular"

"Right in the middle, I actually did lose my train of thought writing this and I decided to put that in ... I kind of followed what was happening at the moment of composition, even if it meant an interruption to the poem."

And so, Padgett lands on a large street in Amsterdam, when Father Time makes a pronouncement and brings him back to his original thought.

That's when we learn some Padgett family history.

"When my mother was nine months pregnant and she got the internal signal that she was ready to have me, she was in fact ironing and she was listening to the radio ... Every weekday there was a live 15 min program that was MC-ed and run by great country and western legend, Bob Wills, ... That became part of the family lore, when my mother realized she was going to have me, she was at that moment ironing and listening to Bob Wills on the radio."

Padgett did also have a dog named Spot as a child.

"I didn't think all this stuff up. It just happened. I wrote this poem; I didn't change hardly a word from the first draft of this."

For Padgett, that happens more often when he writes short poems, because, for him, they are easier to write.

"Every once in a while ... you can get lucky and come out with something fully formed like Athena springing from Zeus's head as a full-blown goddess she was perfect, she just -- boom -- she just popped out. And sometimes poems will do that, they just roll right out and you think well that came out okay and you look at it later and you go, 'By golly it did come out okay, there is not a word I want to add or subtract from this.'"

Curating the poems for his "Collected Poems" was not as easy. "It's fairly rare when living poets have their collected poems published. It's the kind of thing that most poets would die for. It's such an honor."

But once Padgett got his a first copy of the book, which he says looked exactly how he wanted it too, he didn't feel quite as he expected. In fact, he says he found it depressing.

"I looked down on it and I thought, it's a little cube of paper, and I thought I've spent my whole life and little chunk of my soul, let's call it, working on this project and it comes out to be a little cube of paper that I can hold in one hand. I thought maybe I could have done something a little more productive or helpful to the world."

Padgett's wife wouldn't let those feelings last long. He describes her as his best and most perceptive critic of his work and he attributed snapping out of his depression to her.

"Now I feel good about it. I'm glad I did and I'm glad I got through that little depressed phase and I'm looking forward to writing new things."

"Spot" is reprinted by permission from Collected Poems (Coffee House Press, 2013). Copyright © 2013 by Ron Padgett.

Photo by John Sarsgard/Coffee House Press

Ron Padgett is an American poet, essayist, fiction writer, translator and member of the New York School. The son of a bootlegger, growing up in Tulsa, Okla., Padgett began writing at 13. Since then he attended Columbia University in New York City while also traveling around North America, Eastern Europe and Asia. He is the recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship from the America Academy of Arts and Letters, the Shelley Memorial Award from the National Endowment for the Arts and was a 2012 Pulitzer Prize finalist in poetry. His latest book "Collected Poems" is a compilation of his works from 1960-2004 including 11 previous publications and dozens of uncollected poems.