Tracy K. Smith is the author of four books of poetry: Wade in the Water, The Body’s Question, Duende, and Life on Mars, which earned her a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. She is also the author of a memoir, Ordinary Light, which was named a finalist for the National Book Award. Smith is a professor of the humanities and director and professor of creative writing at Princeton University. In 2017, she became the 52nd poet laureate of the United States. On January 31, UCSB’s Arts & Lectures presents an evening with Smith, who I recently interviewed via email.
It must be a very interesting time to be the poet laureate of the United States. Well, the laureateship isn’t a political appointment, so my main focus is on poetry. And that’s a good thing, because this current moment, with all its uncertainties, is a great time for poetry.
Where do you see the intersection of poetry and politics in your current job? As I see it, poets are thinking in active and moving terms about questions of public and private politics — questions of how we relate to one another. In reading and talking about poems in different configurations of community, I notice that poems lead us not to a place of argumentation, but rather deep consideration and honest revelation. I’ve spent some of my most powerful moments in the past two years talking to people I’ve only just met about the things poems cause them to remember, wonder, wish, and realize.
