Natasha Trethewey

Natasha Trethewey (born April 26, 1966) is an American poet and teacher. From 2012 to 2014 she was the poet laureate consultant in poetry for the Library of Congress. In 2012 she was also the poet laureate of the state of Mississippi.
She has written five books of poetry, a memoir, and a work of non-fiction. Her third poetry collection won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 2007.
She was born in Gulfport, Mississippi to an African American mother and a white Canadian father. This fact of coming from parents of different races plays an important part in her writing. After her parents' divorce, she learned that "when she was with her father she could pass for white and be treated more equally than when she was among her mother’s people."