Campus Chronicle

Issue date: 9/29/08 Section: Campus Life

Media Credit: Erica L. Turner

On September 18, 2008, Pulitzer Prize winner Natasha Trethewey was the honored guest at a poetry reading sponsored by the English Department at Alcorn State University. The reading started at 12:30 p.m. in the Ballroom of the James L. Bolden Student Union.
After being introduced by one of the members of the Alcorn faculty, Trethewey read excerpts from her acclaimed novel, Native Guard. Native Guard won her The Pulitzer Prize in 2007 in Poetry. She explained that the cover of Native Guard was actually a diary entry from one of the native guards. After the reading, she asked the audience how many of them had visited Ship Island. Ship Island is 12 miles off the coast of Gulfport, Mississippi. It consists of two islands, which are East and West Ship Island. Trethewey recalled visiting the islands with her grandmother on Fourth of July weekends during her childhood.
Then, she continued the program by reading some of her pieces which included, "Pilgrimage", "Genus Narcissus", "Photograph: Ice Storm- 1971", "Southern History", "Southern Gothic", "Incident", "Monument", "South" and "Graveyard Blues", which was about the death of her mother.
She allowed the filled audience to ask her questions. The questions varied from her personal experiences to her literary motivations. She answered every question with a satisfying answer. After she concluded the program, the audience responded with an enthusiastic standing ovation.
Trethewey was born in Gulfport, Mississippi, in 1966. She earned an M.A. in poetry from Hollins University and M.F.A. in poetry from the University of Massachusetts. She is a Phyllis Wheatley Distinguished Chair in Poetry at Emory University.

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools