News at Eleven: [Richard] Blanco must now compose an original poem

for the president's ceremonial swearing-in on the steps of the Capitol on Jan. 21. (Mr. Obama will take the official oath at the White House on Jan. 20, as required by the Constitution.) Addie Whisenant, the inaugural committee's spokeswoman, said Mr. Obama picked Mr. Blanco because the poet's "deeply personal poems are rooted in the idea of what it means to be an American."

Friends of Mr. Blanco's, and fellow poets, say the president could not have found a more perfect fit.

"I think he was chosen because his America is very similar to the president's America," said Liz Balmaseda, who met Mr. Blanco in the mid-1990s when he was just emerging as a poet, and she was working as a columnist for The Miami Herald.

from The New York Times: Poet’s Kinship With the President
then NPR: Richard Blanco Will Be First Latino Inaugural Poet
then The Washington Post: Richard Blanco chosen as inaugural poet
then Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Richard Blanco, poet for Obama inaugural, was nurtured by University of Pittsburgh Press

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