University Hosting Inaugural August Wilson House Fellow at Two Special Events

Members of the Pittsburgh and campus communities can hear Pulitzer Prize-winner Natasha Trethewey, the inaugural Duquesne University/August Wilson House Fellow, read selections of her poetry and share some insights at two upcoming events.

Natalie Trethewey
Natasha Trethewey

A two-term U.S. poet laureate, Trethewey will read from her book Monument: Poems New and Selected during An Evening of Poetry with Natasha Trethewey on Thursday, March 21, from 4 to 5 p.m. at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh at 2177 Centre Ave. Terri Baltimore, Hill House director for community engagement, and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette columnist Tony Norman will co-host the free event.

Trethewey will present You Are Not Safe in Science; You Are Not Safe in History: On Abiding Metaphors and Finding a Calling on Friday, March 22, from 1 to 3 p.m. in the Power Center Ballroom. A reception will follow this free event in the Shepperson Suite, and select titles by Trethewey will be available for purchase. RSVP online to attend.

President Ken Gormley introduced Trethewey as the first Duquesne University/August Wilson House Fellow last September as part of a special ceremony that included Pittsburgh dignitaries and actor Denzel Washington.

In addition to Monument, Trethewey is the author of Thrall, Native Guard, Bellocq’s Ophelia and Domestic Work. She also wrote the poetry chapbook Congregation and the prose book Beyond Katrina: A Meditation on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Trethewey also served as editor of The Best American Poetry 2017.

Trethewey’s numerous honors and recognitions include a 2017 Heinz Award in the Arts and Humanities category and fellowships from the Academy of American Poets, the Guggenheim Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Study Center, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Bunting Fellowship Program of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard. In 2013, Trethewey was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and she is a Board of Trustees Professor of English in Northwestern University’s Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences.

During her second term as U.S. Poet Laureate, Trethewey traveled with PBS Senior Correspondent Jeffrey Brown across the country to explore societal issues as part of her signature project Where Poetry Lives, a PBS NewsHour poetry series. She also was State Poet Laureate of Mississippi from 2012-2016.

The Duquesne University/August Wilson House Fellowship, launched in 2018, provides opportunities to scholars and artists of color in varied media to engage in literary, cultural and artistic expression that advances their own work and serves the joint interests of the University and the community. Supported by a $100,000 grant from the Nancy Jones Beard Foundation, the fellowship is designed to bring national and regional artists and scholars into a collaboration between the renowned author Wilson’s Hill District and educational and artistic institutions.