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September 10, 2010
After the storm, after the Pulitzer
If you've just won a Pulitzer Prize for your poetry, how do you choose a follow-up project?
For Emory English professor Natasha Trethewey, a project chose her. A year before the publication of her Pulitzer-winning work, "Native Guard," Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast where she spent her childhood. Even as she was accepting the prize in 2007, her family members were struggling to rebuild their homes and lives.
Now, Trethewey eulogizes all that's been washed away and honors those who remain in her new book, "Beyond Katrina: A Meditation on the Mississippi Gulf Coast" (University of Georgia Press, 2010). Trethewey weaves together a social and personal history of the Gulf through personal letters, photos, creative nonfiction and – of course – poetry.
Click on player below to listen to Trethewey read a poem included in the book.
2 min. 16 sec. Download file
Click on player below to listen to Trethewey speak about Hurricane Katrina and the resulting devastation.
0 min. 50 sec. Download file
Natasha Trethewey goes "Beyond Katrina"
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Book/Report Podcasts
Tune in as faculty authors tell how their new books are shaping scholarship. Explore more podcasts.Southern Spaces
Emory’s Southern Spaces journal features Natasha Trethewey, her brother Joe and several Gulfport residents from “Beyond Katrina” in the latest Poets in Place series, recorded on location along the Mississippi Gulf Coast .