Pulitzer poet shares art

It started off with the whimsical Jean Valentine, thencame the musical work of USD poetry professor Jericho Brown, and now, wrapping up this semester's Cropper Series readings is poet Natasha Trethewey. If there was ever a time to use the cliché, "last but not least" it would be now. Trethewey is a talented poet that gave an inspiring reading to many USD students on April 17. She started the reading off with her poem "Illumination" and her soft, smooth voice automatically entranced the audience. The imagery that she created with her words was so strong that one audience member commented after the reading that he admired, "the visual journey [she] created with her words." In order to write poetry, she clears her head by, "Taking long walks with her dog or going on long road trips." Her first poetry book won the inaugural 1999 Cave Canem poetry prize. She again caught attention with her second poetry collection "Bellocq's Ophelia,'' which was named a 2003 Notable Book by the American Library Association. This is only awarded to two to three poetry books a year. The piece was inspired by E. J. Bellocq's photographs of prostitutes in New Orleans. Her third book, "Native Guard,'' written in 2007 received the Pulitzer Prize in poetry. After Trethewey's reading, she noted that Irish poets such as Seamus Heaney influenced "Native Guard.'' During the reading, Trethewey's subject matter ranged from the "Graveyard Blues," Mississippi, and anti-miscegenation (interracial marriage) laws. Brown, the chair of the Cropper Creative Writing Committee, was able persuade his former teacher to do a reading. Before the reading he commented that, "For the last five years, the Cropper Living Writing series has brought to USD and the San Diego community at large, some of the greatest authors of our time. Pulitzer Prize winner Natasha Trethewey is the perfect poet for celebrating this special five year anniversary." In 2000, USD alumna Lindsay J. Cropper passed away, and in 2004 the Lindsay J. Cropper Center for Creative Writing was established in her memory. Trethewey's poetry is compassionate and lyrical, making her poetry very appealing. She went through school with the intention of becoming a fiction writer, until a professor told her that she was a poet. Trethewey ended the night with a poem from a new book she is working on, and she is hoping that her next collection will come out in 2011.