ECU to present an evening with U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Tretheway

Natasha Tretheway.jpg (Contributed photo from Blue Flower Arts)

GREENVILLE, N.C. (10/21/2024) — East Carolina University’s Contemporary Writers Series, housed in the Thomas Harriot College of Arts and Sciences Department of English, will welcome Pulitzer prize-winner and United States Poet Laureate Natasha Tretheway to campus at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 24 in the Main Campus Student Center Ballroom C.

“Natasha Trethewey, by any measure, like her literary heroes Toni Morrison and Rita Dove, is an indispensable writer,” said John Hoppenthaler, co-director of the series and professor in the Department of English. “Equally profound and moving as a poet and memoirist, she is an engaging reader whose words will linger with our students, faculty and members of the community at large long after the event has ended.”

Trethewey served two terms as the 19th U.S. Poet Laureate (2012-2014). She is the author of five collections of poetry, including “Native Guard” (2006) — for which she was awarded the 2007 Pulitzer Prize — and, most recently, her nonfiction collection, “Monument: Poems New and Selected” (2018).

In addition, she authored “Beyond Katrina: A Meditation on the Mississippi Gulf Coast” (2010); a memoir, “Memorial Drive” (2020), which became a New York Times Bestseller and was one of Barack Obama’s Favorite Books of 2020; and her most recent book, “The House of Being,” a collection of meditative essays.

Trethewey is the Board of Trustees professor of English; director of creative writing; and director of graduate studies for the Litowitz Graduate Program in Creative Writing at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.

The event is free and open to the public. It is supported by the Thomas Harriot College of Arts and Sciences, the Department of English and ECU’s Office of the Provost. Individuals requesting accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) should contact the ADA Coordinator at least 48 hours before the event at 252-737-1018 or ada-coordinator@ecu.edu.

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