| |
 Natasha Trethewey's muscular, luminous poems explore the complex memory of the history of the American South that belongs to all Americans. The sequence forming the spine of the collection follows the Native Guard, one of the first black regiments mustered into service in the Civil War. In Trethewey's hometown of Gulfport, Mississippi, a plaque honors Confederate POWs, but there is no memorial to these vanguard Union soldiers. Native Guard is both a pilgrimage and an elegy, as Trethewey skillfully employs a variety of poetic forms to create a lyrical monument to these forgotten voices. Interwoven are poems honoring Trethewey's mother and recalling her fraught childhood her parents’ interracial marriage was still illegal in 1966 Mississippi. Native Guard is a haunting, beguiling narrative, caught in the intersections of public and personal testament.
Natasha Trethewey has won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize f or Native Guard. Bellocq’s Ophelia (Graywolf, 2002) which was named a Notable Book for 2003 by the American Library Association, and Domestic Work (Graywolf, 2000). She is the recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Study Center, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Bunting Fellowship Program of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard. Her poems have been widely published in poetry journals and anthologies. Currently, she is Phillis Wheatley Distinguished Chair in Poetry in the Creative Writing Program at Emory University.
Incoming students are expected to purchase and read the summer reading selection prior to arriving at Smith for Orientation. There will be small group discussions during Orientation on September 2, and Ms. Trethewey will join us for a reading and presentation in the evening.
An announcement had previously been made on our website and during Open Campus events that the summer reading selection would be Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight by Alexandra Fuller. The decision has been made to move Ms. Fuller’s book to our January book discussion course and Interterm Program. Ms. Fuller will visit with us during Interterm.
Past summer reading selections have included:
|
|
Summer
Reading
Orientation
First-Year
Seminars
Smith
Life & Learning
Local
Accommodations |
 |
