A new Poet Laureate has been named, and she’s a Civil War buff (at least insofar as she wrote a collection of war-themed poems). Brava, Natasha Trethewey.
The Library of Congress named Natasha Trethewey yesterday its 19th U.S. poet laureate, with a mission to share the art of poetry with a wider audience. The English and creative writing professor at Emory University in Atlanta distinguished herself early, winning the Pulitzer Prize in 2007…
Part of her work has focused on restoring history that has been erased or forgotten from the official record and the nation’s shared memory. Her research in the library’s Civil War archive informs some of her writings.
Trethewey won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for her collection of poems, “Native Guard.” She wrote of the Louisiana Native Guard, a black regiment assigned to guard white Confederate soldiers on Ship Island, off Mississippi’s Gulf Coast.