The Gertrude C. & Harold S. Vanderbilt Reading Series 2026-27 kicks off on September 10 with U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey
Former U.S. Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Prize-winner Natasha Trethewey will kick off the 2026-2027 Gertrude C. & Harold S. Vanderbilt Reading Series on September 10.
The evening will begin with a literary salon at 6:30 PM, followed by a public reading 7:00 and a book-signing at 8:00.
Thursday, September 10
Vanderbilt Special Collections Library, 1101 19th Avenue South, Nashville
Pulitzer Prize-winner Natasha Trethewey served two terms as the 19th Poet Laureate of the United States (2012-2014), while also serving as the Poet Laureate of the State of Mississippi (2012-2016). She is the author of the New York Times bestseller Memorial Drive: A Daughter’s Memoir (2020) and five collections of poetry, including Monument: Poems New & Selected (2018), which was longlisted for the 2018 National Book Award. She is the recipient of fellowships from the Academy of American Poets, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Guggenheim Foundation. In 2020, she received the Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt National Prize for Lifetime Achievement in Poetry from the Library of Congress. The New York Times describes Natasha’s narrative voice as a “controlled burn of chaos and intellect.” The New Yorker praises her ability to connect historical trauma to her own experiences.
The Gertrude C. and Harold S. Vanderbilt Reading Series is named in honor of Vanderbilt founder Cornelius Vanderbilt’s great-grandson and his wife. Each semester, the series brings several professional writers to campus to read from their works and visit classes. This unique and extraordinary program gives English department students and faculty, the Vanderbilt community, and Nashville’s citizens a chance to meet and talk with some of the best writers of our day.
Additional readings in the 2026-2027 series will feature fiction writers and poets Peter Orner on September 24, Elise Paschen on October 8, Ayana Mathis on October 29, Victoria Redel on December 3, Matthew Zapruder on January 14, Sarah Wang on February 4, Alumni Poets on April 1, and Jane Huffman on April 15.
In November, the series will welcome Pádraig Ó Tuama, Tracy K. Smith, and Kevin Young for Poetry & Our Spiritual Lives: A Reading and Panel Discussion, in conjunction with Vanderbilt University–New York City.
Thanks to a gift from the Fellowship of Southern Writers, a celebration will be held in March with details to be confirmed. We will honor the literature of the American South and encourage writers to shape that legacy by writing imaginatively, honestly and openly based on their lived experiences today.
In the spirit of National Poetry Month, poet Jane Huffman will give a reading of her collection Dilemma, the winner of the third annual Vanderbilt University Literary Prize. This award is a collaboration with the Chancellor’s Office, College of Arts & Science, and Department of English.
To learn more about upcoming events and Creative Writing program news, visit the Vanderbilt Reading Series website and social media channels, and sign up for the monthly newsletter here.
Natasha’s full press release can be viewed here.