Librarian
of Congress Names Tracy K. Smith Poet Laureate
Library of Congress: 6.14.2017
Librarian
of Congress Carla Hayden today announced the appointment of Tracy K. Smith as
the Library’s 22nd Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry for 2017-2018. Smith will
take up her duties in the fall, opening the Library’s annual literary season in
September with a reading of her work in the Coolidge Auditorium.
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Smith,
a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and a professor at Princeton University, succeeds
Juan Felipe Herrera as Poet Laureate.
“It
gives me great pleasure to appoint Tracy K. Smith, a poet of searching,” Hayden
said. “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. With directness and deftness, she contends with the heavens or
plumbs our inner depths—all to better understand what makes us most human.”
“I
am profoundly honored,” Smith said. “As someone who has been sustained by poems
and poets, I understand the powerful and necessary role poetry can play in
sustaining a rich inner life and fostering a mindful, empathic and resourceful
culture. I am eager to share the good news of poetry with readers and future
readers across this marvelously diverse country.”
Smith
joins a long line of distinguished poets who have served in the position,
including Juan Felipe Herrera, Charles Wright, Natasha Trethewey, Philip
Levine, W.S. Merwin, Kay Ryan, Charles Simic, Donald Hall, Ted Kooser, Louise
Glück, Billy Collins, Stanley Kunitz, Robert Pinsky, Robert Hass and Rita Dove.
The
new Poet Laureate is the author of three books of poetry, including “Life on
Mars” (2011), winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry; “Duende” (2007),
winner of the 2006 James Laughlin Award and the 2008 Essence Literary Award;
and “The Body’s Question” (2003), winner of the Cave Canem Poetry Prize. Smith
is also the author of a memoir, “Ordinary Light” (2015), a finalist for the
2015 National Book Award in nonfiction and selected as a notable book by the
New York Times and the Washington Post. READ MORE @
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