The Merwin Conservancy and the Honolulu Museum of Art are proud to present an intimate evening with current U.S. Poet Laureate, Tracy K. Smith. The Green Room is an environmental and literary salon series that fosters a reverence for language, nature, and imagination. The Green Room series was founded on Maui by The Merwin Conservancy and is now held on both Maui and O'ahu.
The presentation will be followed by an intimate Q&A with Tracy K. Smith and book signing with drinks.
Tracy K. Smith is the author of the critically acclaimed memoir, Ordinary Light, and three books of poetry. Her collection, Life on Mars, won the 2012 Pulitzer Prize and was selected as a New York Times Notable Book. Smith was the recipient of a Rona Jaffe Writers Award in 2004 and a Whiting Award in 2005. In 2014 the Academy of American Poets awarded Smith with the Academy Fellowship, awarded to one poet each year to recognize distinguished poetic achievement. She is the Roger S. Berlind ’52 Professor in the Humanities, and director of the creative writing program at Princeton University. In 2017, Smith was appointed the 22nd United States Poet Laureate, and her next collection of poems, Wade in the Water, is forthcoming in 2018.
The Merwin Conservancy is a non-profit organization founded on Maui by renowned poet W.S. Merwin and his late wife Paula Merwin. The Merwin Conservancy's mission is to preserve the legacy of W. S. Merwin, his home and palm forest, for retreat and study for writers and for environmental advocacy and community education.