🎯 Where Should I Start?
ⓘ About Natasha Trethewey
Natasha Tretheway is an American novelist and poet who won the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry for “Native Guard” her 2006 poetry collection. She is the Robert W Woodruff Professor of Creative Writing and English at Emory University, where she is also the Creative Writing Program director. Tretheway was born in 1966 in Gulfport, Mississippi which was Confederate Memorial Day. She was born to an interracial couple Gwendolyn Ann Turnbough and Eric Tretheway, whose relationship and marriage were illegal at the time. She was born just a year before the anti-miscegenation laws were struck down by the US Supreme Court. Her birth certificate indicated her father’s race as Canadian and her mother as colored.
All Book Series by Natasha Trethewey
Beyond Katrina: A Meditation on the Mississippi Gulf Coast
Book 4 of 7 · published 2010
Monument: Poems New and Selected
Latest in the series · book 7 of 7 · published 2018
The Best American Poetry 2003
Series opener · book 1 of 2 · published 2003 Anthology · Anna Ziegler
The Best American Poetry 2005
Latest in the series · book 2 of 2 · published 2005 Anthology · Paul Muldoon
What Nails It
Latest in the series · book 5 of 5 · published 2024 Anthology · Greil Marcus
Breaking into Blossom: Poems with Extraordinary Endings
Latest in the series · book 4 of 4 · published 2025
? Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Natasha Trethewey?
Natasha Tretheway is an American novelist and poet who won the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry for “Native Guard” her 2006 poetry collection. She is the Robert W Woodruff Professor of Creative Writing and English at Emory University, where she is also the Creative Writing Program director. Tretheway was born in 1966 in Gulfport, Mississippi which was Confederate Memorial Day.
Which Natasha Trethewey series should I start with?
The best place to start is the Why I Write series, the earliest of Natasha Trethewey's multi-book series: it opens with Devotion (2017) and runs to 5 books across 2017–2024, ending with What Nails It (2024).
How many books has Natasha Trethewey written?
Natasha Trethewey has 19 books catalogued in this guide, published between 2000 and 2025. 7 of them belong to 2 named series — the largest being the Why I Write series with 5 books — and 12 are standalone titles, collections or anthologies.
In what order should Natasha Trethewey's series be read?
Read each series in publication order — the numbered entries in each series follow the year each book first appeared. Natasha Trethewey's series do not depend on one another, so they can be started in any order; by start date they are Best American Poetry (2003–2005, 2 books) and Why I Write (2017–2024, 5 books).
How are Natasha Trethewey's books organised into series?
This guide splits Natasha Trethewey's 19 books into 2 named series and 12 titles that stand alone or appear only in collections: Why I Write (5 books, 2017–2024); Best American Poetry (2 books, 2003–2005).