Works by
Tracy K. Smith
(Poet)
[April 16, 1972 - ]

Poetry

• Duende: Poems (2007)
  Duende, that dark and elusive force described by Federico García Lorca, is the creative and ecstatic power an artist seeks to channel from within. It can lead the artist toward revelation, but it must also, Lorca says, accept and even serenade the possibility of death. Tracy K. Smith’s bold second poetry collection explores history and the intersections of folk traditions, political resistance, and personal survival. Duende gives passionate testament to suppressed cultures, and allows them to sing.

• The Body's Question (2003) -- Winner 2002 Cave Canem Prize for the best first book by an African-American poet
  Confronting loss, historical intersections with race and family, and the threshold between childhood and adulthood, Smith gathers courage and direction from the many disparate selves encountered in these poems, until, as she writes, "I was anyone I wanted to be."

Other

• Gathering Ground: A Reader Celebrating Cave Canem's First Decade (2006), Cornelius Eady and Toi Derricotte, eds. with Camille T. Dungy, ass't. ed.

• Legitimate Dangers:  American Poets of the New Century (2006), Cate Marvin and Michael Dumanis, eds.

• Poetry 30: Thirty-Something Thirty-Something American Poets (2005), Daniel Crocker and Gerry LaFemina, eds.

• The Autumn House Anthology of Contemporary American Poetry (2005), Sue Ellen Thompson, ed.

• Poetry Daily: 366 Poems from the World's Most Popular Poetry Website (2003), Chryss Yost, Diane Boller, and Don Selby , eds.