Personal Journeys: The Nation's Poet

Metro Atlanta

Personal Journeys: The Nation's Poet

Natasha Trethewey tells America's story through the narrative of her own life. Reporter Rosalind Bentley reveals the joys and sorrows of the nation's poet laureate.

Natasha Trethewey (center), a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet who was recently appointed the 19th U.S. Poet Laureate, poses with her fan DeQuanda Sanders, of Ellenwood, as volunteer Susan Conaway takes a picture during a book signing event after Trethewey's keynote speech for the 7th Annual AJC Decatur Book Festival.

Trethewey was born in 1966 to parents who were coeds at Kentucky State College (Gwen and Eric).

The poet as a young child in 1969 with her father Eric Trethewey and mother Gwendolyn Trethewey, at her grandmother's house in Gulfport, Miss.

Tretheway (sixth from the left) was a UGA cheerleader in 1986.

In the nineties, she was a member of the Dark Room Collective. Seen here (second from right) with (left to right): Nehassaiu deGannes, Adisa Vera Beatty, Major Jackson, Kevin Young, and Sharan Strange.

The Collective, a group of Ivy League students were rigorous with their sonnets, exacting in free verse, every one of them determined to join the canon.

Trethewey would with fellowships and books including "Domestic Work" "Bellocq's Ophelia" and "Native Guard," 2007 winner of the Pulitzer Prize.

Natasha Trethewey during her first official reading as Poet Laureate of the United States on Sept. 13, 2012 at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.

Trethewey (right), the 19th U.S. Poet Laureate, chats with Sue Gilman (left), executive director at The Wren's Nest, before her keynote speech for the 7th Annual AJC Decatur Book Festival.

Trethewey gets a kiss from her father Eric Trethewey with her husband Brett Gadsden looking on after her recognition during a city wide celebration in Decatur. There she said, "I guess I'm the U.S. poet laureate, but I hope I'm your poet laureate."

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Natasha Trethewey (center), a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet who was recently appointed the 19th U.S. Poet Laureate, poses with her fan DeQuanda Sanders, of Ellenwood, as volunteer Susan Conaway takes a picture during a book signing event after Trethewey's keynote speech for the 7th Annual AJC Decatur Book Festival.

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