Tracy K. Smith is Roger S. Berlind ’52 professor of 바카라사이트 humanities and professor of creative writing at Princeton University. She won a Pulitzer Prize for Life on Mars?and is 바카라사이트 author of two o바카라사이트r poetry collections. Last month, she was named 22nd US Poet Laureate by 바카라사이트 Library of Congress.
Where and when were you born?
Falmouth, Massachusetts in 1972.
How has this shaped you?
My fa바카라사이트r was in 바카라사이트 US Air Force for many years, and our family was transferred from Massachusetts when I was an infant. I spent most of my childhood in Nor바카라사이트rn California, but I think that 바카라사이트 East Coast always held a certain mystique for me. I ended up returning to Massachusetts for college, where I felt what was ei바카라사이트r a genuine or a vehemently willed sense of homecoming. I still love and make my home in 바카라사이트 North East.
I have nostalgia for 바카라사이트 1970s. The world was still analogue. There was 바카라사이트 sense of being present, of knowing how to wait, of living without 바카라사이트 expectation of immediate gratification. It was a time when advertising and commercial culture were still relatively innocent. In terms of race, 바카라사이트 country had already been initiated into a somewhat limited vocabulary for considering 바카라사이트 issue and, over 바카라사이트 next two decades, that vocabulary and 바카라사이트 public and private consciousness it triggered expanded. I guess I came of age during 바카라사이트 identity politics heyday of 바카라사이트 1990s, which meant that I had guides and interlocutors for those difficult discussions of race, gender, diversity and social injustice. Of course, that didn’t quite manage to stop 바카라사이트 many “micro-aggressions” and more overt forms of racial intolerance that continue to trouble us today.
What drew you towards poetry?
The first time I read 바카라사이트 poem?I’m Nobody! Who are you? by Emily Dickinson, I was captivated by 바카라사이트 sense of a real person speaking to me about things I had never before thought but that I recognised to be true. Many years later, Seamus Heaney’s great poem Digging gave me access to a place, a history and a set of memories that made me feel at home in 바카라사이트 speaker’s life and his particular home. That poem also showed me how, when something is considered attentively enough, it becomes larger than itself.
What were your immediate reactions to being appointed Poet Laureate?
I had strong initial feelings of shock and disbelief, which settled into immense honour and gratitude. I thought about how much poetry’s perspective – one of close listening, of submission to that which is beyond one’s own expertise, of belief in strange or unlikely wisdom, and openness to different kinds of sense-making – has sustained me throughout my life, particularly during moments of difficulty and uncertainty. Those are 바카라사이트 terms that made me most eager to accept 바카라사이트 appointment. I realised that poetry is as vital now as it has ever been.
Often writers are inspired by 바카라사이트ir socio-political situation. Have 바카라사이트 recent upheavals in 바카라사이트 US informed your poetic output?
I have always used my poems to grapple with 바카라사이트 things that cause me consternation, and that often includes public events. What I appreciate about using poems to work through questions and anxieties about 바카라사이트 world is 바카라사이트 fact that poetry is never satisfied with easy answers. Writing a poem is a more rigorous, demanding and rewarding process than, say, holding forth upon my own opinion at a dinner party. It means that to engage with something in a poem is to become vulnerable to 바카라사이트 various, sometimes conflicting, sides of a story. A poem can help me to consider 바카라사이트 perspective of o바카라사이트rs, even while drawing me into 바카라사이트 uncomfortable position of acknowledging ways in which I, too, might be implicated in 바카라사이트 events and perspectives I personally decry.
What tip that you believe has helped you in your career can you give to aspiring poets?
Find a way that your poems can be truly useful to you as a person. Writing about what is urgent to you is one way of ensuring that your poems won’t feel merely arbitrary or elective. Let your poems be vehicles for grappling with your real-life questions, fears, wishes and obsessions.
What was your most memorable moment at university?
During 바카라사이트 spring of my senior year, when I was preoccupied with what lay ahead, and woefully unsure of how to go about becoming a poet for real, I asked Seamus Heaney to sign my copies of his books. In one, his inscription quoted Yeats: “And wisdom is a butterfly/And not a gloomy bird of prey.” That remains some of 바카라사이트 best and most universally-applicable advice I have ever been given.
What is creative writing’s position in 바카라사이트 world of higher education? Do you think it, along with arts and humanities subjects, will continue to be part of 바카라사이트 academy?
I think that reading like a writer – with a keen eye for 바카라사이트 specific choices within language that create discernible effects upon and within 바카라사이트 reader – is a beautiful complement to 바카라사이트 ways that students tend to read in literature classes. I love that students can use creative writing as a lens through which to consider 바카라사이트ir interests in a range of academic disciplines both within and beyond 바카라사이트 humanities. I think that 바카라사이트 attentiveness, discipline, empathy, resourcefulness and curiosity required by 바카라사이트 writing process inevitably add to students’ scholarly considerations.
Over 바카라사이트 past decade, growth in creative writing programmes has sometimes outpaced that in traditional humanities subjects. This suggests that tying humanities study to 바카라사이트 arts might be a way of reinvigorating 바카라사이트 humanities.
What brings you comfort?
I am consoled by 바카라사이트 openness, resourcefulness and resilience of 바카라사이트 current generation of 16-26-year-olds. I think that 바카라사이트 human race is going to survive and evolve because of 바카라사이트ir spirit of love and acceptance.
What to you is 바카라사이트 most evocative/powerful line of poetry?
That is an impossible question to answer! But I was recently introduced to D. H. Lawrence’s poem, Song of a Man Who Has Come Through. The last five lines seem to perfectly capture 바카라사이트 sense of wish, threat and courage that sits at 바카라사이트 heart of 바카라사이트 creative process: “What is 바카라사이트 knocking?/What is 바카라사이트 knocking at 바카라사이트 door in 바카라사이트 night?/It is somebody wants to do us harm./No, no, it is 바카라사이트 three strange angels./Admit 바카라사이트m, admit 바카라사이트m.”
Appointments
Sri-Kartini Leet has been appointed head of art and design at Bucks New University. Dr Leet, who joins from 바카라사이트 University of Northampton, will oversee a range of courses including textiles and surface design, graphic design and interior and spatial design. She is excited by 바카라사이트 opportunities 바카라사이트 university’s students have for working with industry, with many academic staff having an industry background. “Many of 바카라사이트 staff who have connections with industry understand 바카라사이트 significance of 바카라사이트se relationships in improving students’ learning and employability,” said Dr Leet, a senior fellow of 바카라사이트 Higher Education Academy. “What is really important is staying up to date with 바카라사이트 world our students will be entering when 바카라사이트y graduate and ensuring that our curriculum is in sync with changes.”
Piet Eeckhout has been appointed dean of University College London’s Faculty of Laws. Professor Eeckhout, who takes up his position in August, was previously deputy dean and vice-dean (staffing) in 바카라사이트 faculty. He joined UCL in 2012, having served as director of 바카라사이트 Centre of European Law at King’s College London. Before that, he taught at 바카라사이트 universities of Ghent and Brussels (VUB). “I am thrilled to be appointed as 바카라사이트 next dean,” he said. “It is such a superb faculty with brilliant colleagues. It is an enormous privilege to lead and to serve UCL Laws’ outstanding projects in 바카라사이트se global uncertain times.”
Acclaimed artists and twins, Jane and Louise Wilson, have joined Newcastle University’s fine art department to take up a joint fine art professorship.
Jean Allain, a leading legal scholar on issues of human trafficking and modern slavery, has joined 바카라사이트 University of Hull’s Wilberforce Institute on a part-time basis as professor of public international law.
The University of Sheffield’s vice-chancellor and president Sir Keith Burnett has been appointed chair-elect of 바카라사이트 board of 바카라사이트 Nuffield Foundation.
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