Boston Book Festival: Poetry Keynote

About this event

When Pulitzer Prize winner Tracy K. Smith was appointed as the 22nd Poet Laureate of the United States in 2017, Librarian of Congress Dr. Carla Hayden praised the breadth and generosity of her work, writing: “With directness and deftness, she contends with the heavens or plumbs our inner depths—all to better understand what makes us most human.” Smith’s work as Poet Laureate inspired her to take poetry to rural communities across the country and to launch a daily podcast encouraging listeners to slow down and make space for poetry, all while building on her own remarkable body of work. Smith’s new book, Such Color, is the first career-spanning volume from this tremendously talented poet, pulling together selections from her prior collections as well as eighteen new poems. In a starred review, Publishers Weekly writes that Such Color “serves as a humbling and invigorating reawakening from sorrow and apathy.” Smith will be in conversation with another former Poet Laureate, Danielle Legros Georges, former Poet Laureate of the City of Boston. For this opening keynote session, slow down and make space for a vital and thoughtful conversation about the place of poetry in our lives and about the role of poetry in recovery and resistance. Sponsored by Mass Poetry, with media sponsorship by TLS.