Yale Collection of American Literature

The Yale Collection of American Literature documents the creative lives, the artistic communities, and the literary achievements of American writers. The collectionis noted for its strength in nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first-century poetry, fiction, and dramatic writings. The archives of writers of diverse backgrounds underscore the collection’s interest in the indigenous and immigrant cultures that shape American literature.

Creativity in Isolation: Charles Bernstein
May 12, 2020

We asked 2019 Bollingen Prize-winning poet Charles Bernstein what he has been thinking about, working on, and reading in this time of isolation and quarantine...
Preserving the Great American Opera (Humanities Magazine, NEH)
May 12, 2020
After combing through the opera’s early performance materials, most of which are housed at the Library of Congress and at Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Shirley has produced a critical edition of Porgy and Bess and, in collaboration with the Gershwin Initiative, has also produced the opera’s definitive performing edition, including newly edited orchestral and piano-vocal scores, and a new choral score.
A Forgotten Twentieth-Century Photographer’s Wild Portraits of Women in Nature (The New Yorker)
May 11, 2020
To capture her images of female nudes in natural landscapes, Anne Brigman sometimes set up camp for weeks or months at a time, eight thousand feet up in the Sierra Nevada. “Where I go is wild—hard to reach . . . because there [are] things in life to be expressed in these places,” she wrote to a Vanity Fair reporter, in 1916.
Emily Bernard: Creativity in Isolation
May 5, 2020

We asked scholar, critic, and prize-winning essayist Emily Bernard what she has been thinking about, working on, and reading in this time of isolation and...
Belonging at Yale – Focus on Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month
May 1, 2020
Beinecke and other Yale Library special collections steward important collections of contemporary Asian American authors, creators, and communities. Illustrative highlights in the Yale Collection of American Literature include archives of poets such as Mei-Mei Berssenbrugge (2021 winner of the Bollingen Prize) and Arthur Sze – see Contemporary Asian American Poets: A Top Ten List for links and ideas on searching the collections. Recent additions to the Yale Collection of Western Americana include Japanese American family photo albums such as those compiled by Komao and Eiko Baba that include more than 550 photographs documenting their lives, relatives, and acquaintances from 1917 into the 1990s. There are similar holdings for the Torii, Nobuyama, Matsukane, and Ichiyasu families. Several Yale records document Japanese American incarceration during World War II. The guide to those records highlights the important work by the Reparative Archival Description Working Group to provide guidance on the remediation of the description of these collections.
Creativity in Isolation: Poet Toi Derricotte on Writing and Revising
April 30, 2020
Poet Toi Derrocotte on writing and revising poems in isolation
Preserving Your Personal Treasures
April 24, 2020
Join Christine McCarthy, Director of Preservation & Conservation Services, for an online lecture about how individuals can preserve their personal treasures, familly heirlooms and historical records, and private collections.
2020 Yale College Poets Reading Now Online
April 21, 2020

The annual Yale College Poets Reading sponsored by Yale Collection of American Literature (YCAL) reading series, cosponsored by the Creative Writing Program in...
Knit to This: A Pivot, in the Basement (Mason Dixon Knitting)
April 18, 2020
One of my more hopeful thoughts during this time is that we are going to get art out of this. Maybe the musicians, artists, and writers are going to give us amazing things. And maybe it won’t be the art they have done in the past.
Yale College Poets 2020
April 14, 2020
Our annual student poets reading will take place online