JUNEAU – U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith will visit Juneau as part of her second-term project, “American Conversations: Celebrating Poems in Rural Communities.” After a public reception at 5 pm, Ms. Smith will offer a public reading at the Father Andrew P. Kashevaroff State Library, Archives, and Museum on Wednesday, August 29, at 6 pm. Alaska State Writer Laureate Ernestine Hayes will provide an introduction. The poetry reading and discussion will be recorded for later broadcast on 360 North.
Smith’s Juneau visit is part of a series of nation-wide programs organized with state Centers for the Book, state humanities councils and congressional offices. In each program, Smith will meet with a diverse range of communities. She will also unveil a new anthology, “American Journal: Fifty Poems for Our Time,” featuring the works of 50 living American poets of different backgrounds, offering 50 different outlooks on America, including stories of loss, experiences of immigrants, outcries of injustice and poems that evoke history and celebrate America’s diversity. During her visit, Smith will give away copies of the anthology, which she will use to spark conversations about the power of poetry.
“I’m very excited about the opportunity to take what I consider to be the good news of poetry to parts of the country where literary festivals don’t always go,” Smith has said. “Poetry is something that’s relevant to everyone’s life, whether they’re habitual readers of poetry or not.”
A person experiencing a disability who needs accommodation for events hosted by the Alaska State Library, Archives, and Museum can contact the Division’s ADA coordinator at (907) 465-2988 to make any necessary arrangements.
Born in Falmouth, Massachusetts, in 1972 and raised in Fairfield, California, Tracy K. Smith earned a B.A. in English and American literature and Afro-American studies from Harvard University and an M.F.A. in creative writing from Columbia University. From 1997 to 1999, she was a Stegner Fellow in poetry at Stanford University. Smith has taught at Medgar Evers College of the City University of New York, at the University of Pittsburgh and at Columbia University. She is currently the Roger S. Berlind ’52 Professor in the Humanities and director of the creative writing program at Princeton University. Smith is the author of four books of poetry, including “Wade in the Water” in April 2018; “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. Find more about the US Poet Laureate.
The Alaska State Library provides research services for state employees, assists historical researchers and the public, manages Talking Book services for Alaskans with visual impairments, and collects Alaska-related books, photographs, manuscripts, newspapers, government documents, and periodicals. Hours at the Alaska State Library are Monday-Friday from 10AM to 4PM. For more information about the Library and its services, please visit our library website.
Patience Frederiksen
Alaska State Librarian
907.465.2911
patience.frederiksen@alaska.gov
0 Comments.