Natasha Trethewey to Conclude Tenure as U.S. Poet Laureate

On May 14th, Natasha Trethewey will conclude her tenure as United States Poet Laureate: a position that she has held for the past two years. From The Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

After two terms as the nation’s top poet, Pulitzer Prize-winning, Emory University Professor Natasha Trethewey ends her tenure on May 14.

She’ll give a final lecture that day at the Library of Congress. If the role of the poet laureate is to champion poetry,and to encourage its consumption, Trethewey has spent the past two years doing that from Seattle to Selma, from Detroit to Dubai.

“I have found in this position that the audiences I’ve encountered have been receptive to what I’m talking about,” Trethewey said in an interview with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

But, in her travels and through her PBS “Newshour” segments, the 48-year-old writer found beauty in the raw verses written by unexpected poets, such as homeless teens in Seattle and medical students at Harvard.

Thank you for all of your work and words, Natasha Trethewey! We can't wait to see what's next! Read more of her work so far on our site here, with Dark Room Collective, here, where she talks about her work with "Poetry Off the Shelf," and here, where you can read a sampling of her poetry.