i'm to introduce joy harjo.his year's event, sandra lifetime achievement award winner on behalf of the library. i would first like to congratulate joy on this honor and thank the national book critics circle board for offering the award to a former poet laureate of the united states as the librarian of congress, carla hayden said upon announcing her 2018 laureate appointment. quote, joy harjo has championed the art of poetry, soul, talk, as she calls it, for over four decades to her, poems are carriers of dreams, knowledge and wisdom, and through them, she tells an american story of tradition and loss, reckoning and mythmaking. her world powerful, connects us to the earth and the spiritual world with direct, inventive lyrics, ism that helps us reimagine who we are. i remember how right joy seemed for the position at the time. not only was her terrific ninth poetry collection an american sunrise, about to be published, but the landmark norton anthology she edited when the light of the world was subdued. our songs