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National Poetry Month

April is National Poetry Month, a month-long celebration designed to increase the visibility of poetry and poets in our culture.

America's Poet Laureate 2012-2014

On June 10, 2013, Librarian of Congress James H. Billington announced the appointment of Natasha Trethewey to a second term as the Library's Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry for 2013-2014. 

Natasha Trethewey was born in Gulfport, Mississippi on April 26, 1966. She is the author of four poetry collections and a book of creative non-fiction. Her honors include the Pulitzer Prize and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.

On 7 June 2012 James Billington, the Librarian of Congress, named her the 19th US Poet Laureate. Billington said, after hearing her poetry at the National Book Festival, that he was "“immediately struck by a kind of classic quality with a richness and variety of structures with which she presents her poetry … she intermixes her story with the historical story in a way that takes you deep into the human tragedy of it." Newspapers noted that unlike most poet laureates, Trethewey is in the middle of her career. She will also be the first laureate to take up residence in Washington, D.C. when she does so in January 2013.  

Her second term will begin in September, 2013. She will follow previous multiyear laureates—such as Kay Ryan, Ted Kooser, and Billy Collins—and undertake a signature project: a regular feature on the PBS NewsHour Poetry Series. Trethewey will join NewsHour Senior Correspondent Jeffrey Brown for a series of on-location reports in various cities across the United States to explore several large societal issues, through a focused lens offered by poetry and her own coming-to-the-art.

The Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress serves as the nation's official lightning rod for the poetic impulse of Americans. During his or her term, the Poet Laureate seeks to raise the national consciousness to a greater appreciation of the reading and writing of poetry.  

 

Natasha Tretheway reading at her induction into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, October 30, 2013