Can bringing poems to the masses be an antidote to our toxic civic culture? US Poet Laureate, Tracy K. Smith, believes we can break down barriers with poetry. In 2017, Smith was appointed Poet Laureate of the United States.

She is the director of Princeton University's creative writing program and lives in New Jersey.

Listen to her passion and inspiration for poetry and writing. Smith's first collection, The Body's Question (Graywolf Press, 2003), won the Cave Canem Poetry Prize in 2002.

Her second book, Duende (Graywolf Press, 2007), won the 2006 James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets. Her most recent collection, Life on Mars (Graywolf Press, 2011), won the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. In April 2018, Graywolf Press will publish her book Wade in the Water.