On Thursday, April 19th, Columbia University alum Tracy K. Smith ('97)​ will give her first-term closing event as the Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry at the Library of Congress. 

22nd U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith will celebrate the conclusion of her first term as laureate in a conversation with Ron Charles, editor of Washington Post’s Book World and host of the Library’s “Life of a Poet” series.

This event is free and open to the public, but tickets are required. You can sign up: HERE and on the right. Book sales and signing will follow.

Smith is now a professor and the director of the creative writing program at Princeton University, and she resides in Princeton with her husband, Raphael Allison, and their three children. She has written three poetry collections, including the Pulitzer Prize–winning Life on Mars (Graywolf, 2011), and a memoir, Ordinary Light (Knopf, 2015). “As someone who has been sustained by poems and poets, I understand the powerful and necessary role poetry can play in sustaining a rich inner life and fostering a mindful, empathic and resourceful culture,” said Smith in the announcement. “I am eager to share the good news of poetry with readers and future-readers across this marvelously diverse country.”

Alongside her poetry, Smith has been working on a libretto for an opera composed by Gregory Spears, about the legacy of slavery in the South. Her poem, "Wade in the Water," from her collection was published alongside an audio version of the poem read by Smith herself in The New Yorker.