Natasha Trethewey is an American poet whose work is known for its formal inventiveness and powerful explorations of race and prejudice. Best known for her Pulitzer-winning collection, Native Guard, Trethewey is one of the most celebrated modern poets in American literature. Her writing often blends the personal and historical, as she writes about subjects ranging from Black veterans of the Civil War to victims of Hurricane Katrina. Similarly, she also alternates easily between using contemporary free verse alongside older poetic forms like the sonnet, villanelle, and ballad.
Trethewey was born on April 26, 1966, in Gulfport, Mississippi, to an African American mother and a white Canadian father. After he parents divorced when she was six, Trethewey split her time between New Orleans, Louisiana and Atlanta, Georgia. In college, she studied English at the University of Georgia and went on to receive an MA in creative writing and English from Hollins University, as well as an MFA in poetry from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Her first collection, Domestic Work (2000), depicts the lives of working-class Black families in the South, highlighting her characters' rich interiority against the backdrop of the evocative setting. The book is partially inspired by her grandmother's life. The book won several awards, including the Cave Canem Prize, Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Book Prize, and the Lillian Smith Award for Poetry. She followed this up with Bellocq's Ophelia (2002) which chronicled events in the life of a New Orleans prostitute. Set in the early 1900s, the book vividly portrays New Orleans' red light district and the experience of the many mixed-race women who worked there. Trethewey said the book was a byproduct of intensive research as well as her own experience of being biracial in the South.
Trethewey's major breakthrough came with the publication of her 2006 collection, Native Guard. The book takes its title from the Louisiana Native Guard, one of the first Black regiments to serve in the Civil War. In the title poem, Trethewey uses a sequence of sonnets to depict the thankless sacrifice made by these soldiers, writing from the perspective of a member of this regiment. Elsewhere in the book, she writes about her childhood, her parents' marriage, and hate crimes in the Reconstruction-era South. Thrall (2012) treats the historical depictions of families of mixed ethnicity, with a particular focus on 18th century portrait art. Monument (2018) is a collected volume of her work with a few recently added poems. The book was longlisted for the 2018 National Book Award for Poetry. She is also the author of a memoir about her mother, Memorial Drive (2020), and a creative non-fiction account of Hurricane Katrina, Beyond Katrina: A Meditation on the Mississippi Gulf Coast (2010). From 2012 to 2014, Trethewey served as the 19th U.S. Poet Laureate. Across a variety of styles and subjects, Trethewey has repeatedly proven to be adept appraiser of how individuals' intimate lives intersect with larger political forces.
"Enlightenment" is a poem by American writer Natasha Trethewey that links the story of Thomas Jefferson's life to her relationship with her father. The poem was originally published as part of her 2012 poetry collection, Thrall. Trethewey was born...
"Incident" is a poem by America writer Natasha Trethewey that recounts an unsettling story told by a family every year. The poem was originally published as part of her 2006 collection, Native Guard, which went on to receive the Pulitzer Prize for...
"Myth" is a poem by American author Natasha Trethewey that uses an unusual structure to retell the story of Orpheus. Originally published in 2006, the poem appeared as part of her collection Native Guard, which received the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for...
Natasha Trethewey (1966-) is one of the most celebrated contemporary American poets of the last twenty years. Her poetry is recognized for its formal inventiveness and deep explorations of the legacy of race and prejudice in American history. She...
“Native Guard” is a sonnet sequence by American poet Natasha Trethewey about a member of the Louisiana Native Guard, one of the first Black regiments to serve in the U.S. military. The poem is from her collection of the same name, Native Guard,...
