Thrall

The stunning follow-up volume to Natasha Trethewey's Pulitzer Prize–winning Native Guard, by the 19th Poet Laureate of the United States.

Natasha Trethewey’s poems are at once deeply personal and historical—exploring her own interracial and complicated roots—and utterly American, connecting them to ours. The daughter of a black mother and white father, a student of history and of the Deep South, she is inspired by everything from colonial paintings of mulattos and mestizos to the stories of people forgotten by history.

Meditations on captivity, knowledge, and inheritance permeate Thrall, as she reflects on a series of small estrangements from her poet father and comes to an understanding of how, as father and daughter, they are part of the ongoing history of race in America.

Thrall confirms not only that Natasha Trethewey is one of our most gifted and necessary poets but that she is also one of our most brilliant and fearless.

• Father-Daughter Relationship: An unflinching examination of the small estrangements and deep connections between a daughter and her poet father, set against the backdrop of their shared history.
• Interracial Identity: These poems navigate the complexities of being the daughter of a black mother and white father, exploring a lineage that is both personal and deeply embedded in the American story.
• Art, History, and Race: Drawing inspiration from colonial casta paintings, historical documents, and forgotten artifacts to investigate the enduring power and perspective of the racial gaze.
• Lyrical and Historical Poetry: A masterwork of American poetry that seamlessly weaves intimate family dynamics with the grand, often painful, tapestry of national history.