Former poet laureate Tracy K. Smith’s ‘plea for the American soul’

Poet Tracy K. Smith’s father was a powerful presence in her life. He was a NASA scientist “perfectly at ease in the never-ending night of space,” as she wrote in her Pulitzer Prize-winning collection “Life on Mars.”

He was also a Black man, and a United States military veteran. And it was only after he died, that Smith discovered she had so much more to learn about him.

“Looking through his paperwork after his death really changed my understanding of who I had been growing up.”

Today, On Point: former poet laureate Tracy K. Smith on the mysteries of fatherhood and freedom, and her “Plea for the American Soul.”

Guest

Tracy K. Smith, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet. U.S. poet laureate from 2017 to 2019. Professor of English and African American studies at Harvard University. Author of “To Free the Captives: A Plea for the American Soul.”

This program aired on November 22, 2023.