Contact: Chris Gallegos, 202-224-5054

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Thad Cochran (R-Miss) today praised the naming of Natasha Trethewey, a Gulfport native, by the Library of Congress to be its poet laureate for 2012-2013.

Trethewey, who is also the Poet Laureate of Mississippi, will formally assume the role of Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry in mid-September.  Trethewey is currently an English and creative writing professor at Emory University.  Her appointment was announced Thursday by the Library of Congress.

“As a poet laureate, Natasha Trethewey can be counted among the literary greats who have hailed from Mississippi.  Professor Trethewey has earned a distinguished reputation for her works.  I am confident she will serve well and be an inspiration to others who revere the written and spoken word.  The Library of Congress has made an excellent selection for its next poet laureate.”

The author of “Beyond Katrina:  A Meditation on the Mississippi Gulf Coast,” Trethewey won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 2007 for her poetry collection, “Native Guard.”

According to the Library of Congress, Trethewey’s term as the 19th Poet Laureate will coincide with the 75th anniversary of the Library’s Poetry and Literature Center and the 1937 creation of the Consultant-in-Poetry position.  Congress in 1986 passed legislation changing the formal title to Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry.

For more information about the poet laureate position and Trethewey (background, photos and video), visit:  www.loc.gov/pressroom

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