United States Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith will be a guest at the Poetry Cafe at the Trenton Public Library on Thursday, January 18, 5 to 7 p.m.
The free event is part of the African American Cultural Collaborative monthly third-Thursday open mic event, coordinated by Trenton born poet Todd Evans.
Smith is also Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and director of Princeton University’s program in creative writing.
Her three books of poetry, including “Life on Mars” (2011), winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry; “Duende” (2007), winner of the 2006 James Laughlin Award and the 2008 Essence Literary Award; and “The Body’s Question” (2003), winner of the Cave Canem Poetry Prize.
Her memoir, “Ordinary Light” (2015) was a finalist for the 2015 National Book Award in nonfiction and selected as a notable book by The New York Times and the Washington Post.
Additional awards include an Academy of American Poets Fellowship, the Robert Creeley Award, a Columbia University’s Medal for Excellence.
Currently living in Princeton, Smith was born in Falmouth, Massachusetts in 1972, and raised in Fairfield, California. She earned a B.A. in English and American literature and Afro-American studies from Harvard University and an M.F.A. in creative writing from Columbia University.
In addition to Princeton, Smith has taught at Medgar Evers College of the City University of New York, at the University of Pittsburgh and at Columbia University.
The Free Trenton Library is located at 120 Academy Street. For more information, call 609-392-7188 or visit trentonlib.org.
