On an early June day, Tracy K. Smith looked out the window of her office at Princeton University at a sculpture by Picasso as students and their families prepared for graduation activities. None of them knew that Smith, who was fielding a battery of phone calls, would soon be announced as the U.S. poet laureate. The Library of Congress made it official earlier this month.
At 45, Smith is unusually young to receive the honor _ other younger recipients include Rita Dove, Robert Lowell and Natasha Tretheway. Established in 1936 as the consultant in poetry and changed in 1985 by Congress to poet laureate, the position has also been held by Donald Hall, Robert Pinsky, Robert Penn Warren, Philip Levine and Joseph Brodsky. Smith succeeds Juan Felipe Herrera, the first Latino poet laureate.
From a childhood in Fairfield, Calif. _ which is between San Francisco and Sacramento _ to winning the Cave Canem poetry prize for 2003's "The Body's Question" and on to being awarded the 2012 Pulitzer Prize in poetry for her most recent collection, "Life on Mars," Smith has shown a singular focus and dedication to her craft. If the role of the poet laureate is, in part, to be an ambassador, Smith will be a representative for listening, quiet and contemplation. She spoke to me by phone; our conversation has been edited.
