
A poet laureate comes to Washington. Yawn. In the world capital of the sound and fury that often signifies not very much, the disciplined sentiments of a poet sound as alien as a tax cut for millionaires.
Natasha Trethewey smashes stereotypes about poets. She's not stuffy. Or shy. Or aloof.
The nation's new poet laureate will be telling her own story, in prose.

The nation's new poet laureate — Natasha Tretheway — will be telling her own story, in prose.
Natasha Trethewey began writing poems after a personal tragedy.
A poet-historian representing a younger generation of writers will soon take office on Capitol Hill, overlooking the politicians, in a lesser-known post enshrined in federal law.
A Pulitzer Prize winner is the nation's first poet laureate to hail from the South since the initial one _ Robert Penn Warren _ was named by the Library of Congress in 1986.