A Yale University professor whose poetry is published by St. Paul's Graywolf Press has been chosen to write and read an original poem at the Jan. 20 inauguration of Barack Obama. Elizabeth Alexander has published four collections of poetry, and her book "American Sublime" was a 2005 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. In 2004, Alexander was a poetry mentor with the Loft.
She will be the fourth poet to read at an inauguration, following Robert Frost in 1961, Maya Angelou in 1993 and Miller Williams in 1997.
"She's a very human poet," Graywolf publisher and director Fiona McCrae said Thursday. "She's very smart, and that expresses itself in her originality and expansiveness. She's lively, she's funny, she's savvy, and she's very interested in American culture. Race, family, motherhood have all been her themes."
Graywolf will publish a chapbook of her inaugural poem in conjunction with the inauguration.
LAURIE HERTZEL, BOOKS EDITOR
