A December Louisiana visit to be part of launch of U.S. Poet Laureate's new anthology, 'American Journal'

U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith will unveil a new anthology featuring the works of 50 living American poets of different ages and backgrounds as she expands an effort to connect with rural communities and engage Americans in conversations about poetry.

She’ll be visiting Louisiana as part of the book’s launch Dec. 14-15.

“American Journal: Fifty Poems for Our Time” will be published Sept. 4 by Graywolf Press in association with the Library of Congress with an introduction by Smith. Poems that Smith selected for the anthology offer 50 different outlooks on America, including stories of loss, experiences of immigrants, outcries of injustice and poems that evoke history and celebrate America’s diversity.

The anthology is a centerpiece of Smith’s second-term project as the nation’s poet laureate for 2018-2019. For her project, titled “American Conversations: Celebrating Poems in Rural Communities,” Smith will travel to rural communities and give away copies of the anthology, which she will use to spark conversations about the power of poetry. This fall’s visits will include Alaska in August, South Dakota in October, Maine in November and Louisiana in December. Smith also will appear at the National Book Festival in Washington on Sept. 1. The project, co-sponsored by the Library’s Poetry and Literature Center and the affiliate Centers for the Book, will be featured on the Library’s read.gov website.

“American Journal” takes its title from a poem by Robert Hayden, the first African American appointed as the U.S. Poet Laureate. Poets included in the anthology include past Poets Laureate Natasha Trethewey and Charles Wright, as well as award-winning poets Mark Doty, Ross Gay, Terrance Hayes, Laura Kasischke, Mary Szybist and others.

“These fifty poems – culled from living American poets of different ages, backgrounds and aesthetic approaches, and with different views of what it feels like to be alive – welcome you to listen and be surprised, amused, consoled,” Smith wrote in the introduction. “There’s something else these fifty poems are up to. As the title ‘American Journal’ suggests, they are contemplating what it feels like to live, work, love, strive, raise a family, and survive many kinds of loss in this vast and varied nation.”

The Library announced her fall tour dates, including several public programs:

Alaska: Aug. 27-29 – Smith will visit three of Alaska’s five regions.

South Dakota: Oct. 4-5

Maine: Nov. 1-2

Louisiana: Dec. 14-15

Louisiana Book News is written by award-winning author Chere Dastugue Coen, who writes Louisiana romances and mysteries under the pen name of Cherie Claire. Her first book in each series is FREE to download as an ebook, including "Emilie," book one of The Cajun Series, "Ticket to Paradise," book one of The Cajun Embassy series and "A Ghost of a Chance," the first Viola Valentine mystery.