Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Names and faces
■ Amanda Gorman can still remember when she was just another young poet trying to find her voice. The 23-year-old Gorman and Penguin Random House have established the Amanda Gorman Award for Poetry, a $10,000 prize for public high school students who submit the best original work. “As someone who found my love of writing at a young age, I want to continue to foster that same love in the next generation of great poets,” Gorman said in a statement Thursday. The 23-year-old Gorman became world famous in January after reading her poem “The Hill We Climb” at President Joe Biden’s inauguration. Current public high school seniors in the U.S. and all U.S. territories who plan to attend a 2- or 4-year college are eligible for the Gorman award. The application period runs from Oct. 1 to Feb. 1, 2022.
■ Robert Plant and Alison Krauss have reunited for another album more than a dozen years after their collaboration “Raising Sand” became a critical and commercial hit, earning six Grammy Awards. The 12-track “Raise the Roof” will be out Nov. 19 f rom Round er Records and is a collection of covers like its predecessor. It was completed in Nashville, Tenn., just weeks before the 2020 lockdown and is once again produced by T-Bone Burnett. The new album has Plant and Krauss singing songs by Merle Haggard, Allen Toussaint, The Everly Brothers, Anne Briggs, Geeshie Wiley, Bert Jansch, Betty Harris and the band Calexico, among others. There is also a Plant-Burnett original. The former Led Zeppelin frontman found more docile Nashville melodies with country and bluegrass icon Krauss on their first collaboration. “Raising Sand” won album of the year at the 2008 Americana Music Honors & Awards, generated platinum sales and was hailed around the world as a creative high point in both musicians’ long and distinguished careers. The new album will include covers of Harris’ “Trouble With My Lover,” Wiley’s “Last Kind Words Blues” and Ola Belle Reed’s “You Led Me to the Wrong.” There’s also the classic “Can’t Let Go,” written by Randy Weeks and first recorded by Lucinda Williams. The Plant-Burnett original is called “High and Lonesome.” Plant and Krauss will tour together in 2022, with dates to be announced soon.