Tracy K. Smith Named 22nd U.S. Poet Laureate

Share

Explore Our Galleries

A man stands in front of the Djingareyber mosque on February 4, 2016 in Timbuktu, central Mali. 
Mali's fabled city of Timbuktu on February 4 celebrated the recovery of its historic mausoleums, destroyed during an Islamist takeover of northern Mali in 2012 and rebuilt thanks to UN cultural agency UNESCO.
TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY SEBASTIEN RIEUSSEC / AFP / SÉBASTIEN RIEUSSEC
African Peoples Before Captivity
Shackles from Slave Ship Henrietta Marie
Kidnapped: The Middle Passage
Enslaved family picking cotton
Nearly Three Centuries Of Enslavement
Image of the first black members of Congress
Reconstruction: A Brief Glimpse of Freedom
The Lynching of Laura Nelson_May_1911 200x200
One Hundred Years of Jim Crow
Civil Rights protest in Alabama
I Am Somebody! The Struggle for Justice
Black Lives Matter movement
NOW: Free At Last?
#15-Beitler photo best TF reduced size
Memorial to the Victims of Lynching
hands raised black background
The Freedom-Lovers’ Roll Call Wall
Frozen custard in Milwaukee's Bronzeville
Special Exhibits
Dr. James Cameron
Portraiture of Resistance

Breaking News!

Today's news and culture by Black and other reporters in the Black and mainstream media.

Ways to Support ABHM?

Sameer Rao, colorlines.com

 

Colorlines Screenshot of Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith, taken from Twitter on June 14, 2017.

Smith earned a Pulitzer Prize for her 2011 outer space-inspired poetry collection, “Life on Mars.”

The Library of Congress announced Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and educator Tracy K. Smith‘s appointment as the U.S. poet laureate.

“Her work travels the world and takes on its voices; brings history and memory to life; calls on the power of literature as well as science, religion and pop culture,” Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden says in a statement. “With directness and deftness, she contends with the heavens or plumbs our inner depths—all to better understand what makes us most human.”

“Her work travels the world and takes on its voices; brings history and memory to life; calls on the power of literature as well as science, religion and pop culture,” Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden says in a statement….

Smith is the third Black woman to hold the position, after Natasha Trethewey and Rita Dove. She earned a 2012 Pulitzer Prize for her 2011 poetry collection, “Life on Mars,” which tackles human mortality in the age of space exploration. The collection paid tribute to her father, an engineer who worked on the Hubble Space Telescope. Smith is currently on leave from her position as Princeton University’s director of creative writing.

Read the full story here.

Read more Breaking News here.

Comments Are Welcome

Note: We moderate submissions in order to create a space for meaningful dialogue, a space where museum visitors – adults and youth –– can exchange informed, thoughtful, and relevant comments that add value to our exhibits.

Racial slurs, personal attacks, obscenity, profanity, and SHOUTING do not meet the above standard. Such comments are posted in the exhibit Hateful Speech. Commercial promotions, impersonations, and incoherent comments likewise fail to meet our goals, so will not be posted. Submissions longer than 120 words will be shortened.

See our full Comments Policy here.

Leave a Comment