Literature lovers mourned when writer Joan Didion was forced to cancel her spring Twin Cities appearance after breaking her collarbone. But you can rejoice now, knowing that poet Natasha Trethewey will be coming here in her stead.

Trethewey won the Pultizer for "Native Guard," which examined her parents' mixed-race marriage and her mother's murder. Her latest book, "Beyond Katrina," is a combination of memoir, poetry, letters and photographs. She has also won the Cave Canem Poetry Prize for the best first book by an African American poet, a Guggenheim Fellowship and a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.

She will be at Coffman Union Theater at 7:30 p.m. April 27 as part of the University of Minnesota's English @ Minnesota Writers Series. Her talk is free and open to the public.