Natasha Trethewey's poetry delves into the complexities of memory and America's racial legacy, drawing profound connections between personal experience and the broader sweep of history. Her work masterfully blends free verse with structured forms like the sonnet and villanelle, weaving individual narratives into the fabric of historical events. With a voice that is both rich and varied, she explores human tragedy through a compelling array of structures and language. Trethewey invites readers to engage deeply with the past and its enduring resonance in the present.
The former U.S. poet laureate shares a personal memoir about the brutal murder of her mother at the hands of her former stepfather, and how this profound experience of loss shaped her as an adult and an artist
Selected as a 2003 Notable Book by the American Library AssociationIn the early 1900s, E.J. Bellocq photographed prostitutes in the red-light district of New Orleans. His remarkable, candid photos inspired Natasha Trethewey to imagine the life of Ophelia, the subject of Bellocq's Ophelia, her stunning second collection of poems. With elegant precision, Ophelia tells of her life on display: her white father whose approval she earns by standing very still; the brothel Madame who tells her to act like a statue while the gentlemen callers choose; and finally the camera, which not only captures her body, but also offers a glimpse into her soul.
Through elegiac verse that honors her mother and tells of her own fraught childhood, Natasha Trethewey confronts the racial legacy of her native Deep South -- where one of the first black regiments, the Louisiana Native Guards, was called into service during the Civil War. Trethewey's resonant and beguiling collection is a haunting conversation between personal experience and national history.
Thrall examines the deeply ingrained and often unexamined notions of racial difference across time and space. Through a consideration of historical documents and paintings, Natasha TretheweyPulitzer-prize winning author of Native Guard highlight the contours and complexities of her relationship with her white father and the ongoing history of race in America.
An exquisite meditation on the geographies we inherit and the metaphors we inhabit, from Pulitzer Prize winner and nineteenth U.S. poet laureate Natasha Trethewey
Erinnerungen einer Tochter - »Es ist höchste Zeit, dass man diese großartige Schriftstellerin in Deutschland wahrnimmt.« Süddeutsche Zeitung
»Eine Meditation über Rassismus, Klassenzugehörigkeit und Trauer. Und am Ende doch sehr positiv - einfach herzzereißend.« Barack Obama Natasha Trethewey ist neunzehn Jahre alt, als sich ihr Leben für immer verändert: ihr ehemaliger Stiefvater erschießt ihre Mutter. Heute stellt sich die mit dem Pulitzerpreis ausgezeichnete Dichterin die Frage, wie diese Erfahrung sie zu der Künstlerin geformt hat, die sie geworden ist. Eindringlich und mit schonungslosem Blick nimmt Trethewey diese tiefgreifende Erfahrung von Schmerz, Verlust und Trauer als Ausgangspunkt, um den tragischen Verlauf des Lebens ihrer Mutter zu erkunden und zu verstehen, wie ihr eigenes Leben durch deren unerschütterlicher Liebe und Widerstandskraft geprägt wurde. Indem sie die Lebenslinien ihrer Mutter im zutiefst von Rassentrennung geprägten amerikanischen Süden und die ihrer eigenen Kindheit als »Kind von Rassenmischung« in Mississippi nachzeichnet, lotet Trethewey ihr Gefühl der Entwurzelung und des Unbehaustseins in jener Zeit aus, die in dem erschütternden Verbrechen mündet, das sich 1985 am Memorial Drive in Atlanta ereignete.