Natasha Trethewey's Reading List

The former poet laureate and author, most recently, of "Monument" came to poetic language via Lincoln's Gettysburg Address: "Before I ever committed any poems to memory I had memorized his speech."

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By the Book: Natasha Trethewey (2018)

NYT By the Book column (2018-11-08).

Source: www.nytimes.com

White Rage

Carol Anderson · Buy on Amazon

"She rigorously outlines the opposition to the exercise, by black Americans, of the rights granted to all American citizens in our Constitution. It's a sobering lesson for understanding where we are in this country right now."

The Sea

John Banville · 2005 · Buy on Amazon

"When I finished it I waited a month, savoring the memory of it, then read it again."

Thomas and Beulah

Rita Dove · Buy on Amazon

"The narrative lyric mode of those poems, as well as their subject matter, opened a new pathway for me."

What Work Is

Philip Levine · Buy on Amazon

"It was also Levine's "What Work Is," Yusef Komunyakaa's "Magic City" and Seamus Heaney's "North" that first inspired me to write poems that could tell the stories I needed to tell."

Magic City

Yusef Komunyakaa · Buy on Amazon

"Levine's "What Work Is," Yusef Komunyakaa's "Magic City" and Seamus Heaney's "North" that first inspired me to write poems."

North

Seamus Heaney · Buy on Amazon

"Levine's "What Work Is," Yusef Komunyakaa's "Magic City" and Seamus Heaney's "North" that first inspired me to write poems."

The Diary of Anne Frank

Unknown · Buy on Amazon

"I read it when I was in the fourth grade and it showed me how a young girl from another time, place, race, culture, experience and situation could be so like me."

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