Accessibility links
Natasha Trethewey NPR coverage of Natasha Trethewey: News, author interviews, critics' picks and more.
NPR logo Natasha Trethewey

Books

Natasha Trethewey

Books by Natasha Trethewey

Natasha Trethewey has written books about:

NPR stories about Natasha Trethewey

Monument

Author Interviews

Natasha Trethewey: Poetry Speaks 'Across The Lines That Would Divide Us'

The Pulitzer Prize winner and former Poet Laureate has a new collection out, called Monument, that takes on American history, personal history, and the lives that history and poetry often overlook.

Natasha Trethewey: Poetry Speaks 'Across The Lines That Would Divide Us'

Listen · 7:58
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/663448203/663858959" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Poet Laureate: 'Poetry's Always A Kind Of Faith'

Natasha Trethewey Joel Benjamin/ hide caption

toggle caption
Joel Benjamin/

Poetry

Poet Laureate: 'Poetry's Always A Kind Of Faith'

Fresh Air

This week, the Library of Congress announced that Natasha Trethewey, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Native Guard, will be the next poet laureate of the United States. Trethewey, a native of Mississippi, is the first Southern poet laureate since 1986.

Poet Laureate: 'Poetry's Always A Kind Of Faith'

Listen · 27:59
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/154566358/154524819" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Moving 'Beyond Katrina' Through Poetry And Prose

Review

The Week's Best Stories From NPR Books

Moving 'Beyond Katrina' Through Poetry And Prose

In a powerful memoir, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Natasha Trethewey surveys the storm-battered landscape of the place she once called home. Beyond Katrina is a powerful meditation on things long gone that will never come back.

Moving 'Beyond Katrina' Through Poetry And Prose

Listen · 3:45
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/129378912/129431188" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Mississippi Meditation: A Poet Looks 'Beyond Katrina'

Natasha Trethewey and her brother Joe stand in front of Fort Massachusetts on Ship Island, Miss., circa 1999. Courtesy of the author hide caption

toggle caption
Courtesy of the author

The Week's Best Stories From NPR Books

Mississippi Meditation: A Poet Looks 'Beyond Katrina'

Fresh Air

In a new memoir, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Natasha Trethewey revisits her own memories of the Gulf Coast region, and details how members of her family worked to rebuild their lives after the storm. She asks how the identity of the Gulf will be remembered — and how the region's stories will be told.

Mississippi Meditation: A Poet Looks 'Beyond Katrina'

Listen · 38:08
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/129252666/129277115" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Poetry

Natasha Trethewey: If My Mom Could See Us Now

Fresh Air

Natasha Trethewey won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for poetry for her book Native Guard. Her parents had an interracial marriage while it was still illegal in Mississippi, and Tretheway's poetry often draws on her childhood as a biracial child in the south.

Natasha Trethewey: If My Mom Could See Us Now

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/99474984/99583554" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Poetry

Poet Natasha Trethewey, Hymning the Native Guard

Fresh Air

Natasha Trethewey was recently awarded the Pulitzer Prize for her poetry collection Native Guard. Trethewey grew up bi-racial in Mississippi, and her mother was murdered by her stepfather; these, along with the South, are recurring themes in her poetry.

Poet Natasha Trethewey, Hymning the Native Guard

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/12003278/12003966" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">