Natasha Trethewey was born in Gulfport, Mississippi; her first poetry collection, Domestic Work won the inaugural 1999 Cave Canem poetry prize, selected by Rita Dove, and the 2001 Lillian Smith Award for Poetry. Her collection Native Guard won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry. She is currently the Phillis Wheatley Distinguished Chair in Poetry in Emory’s Department of English. The Raymond Danowski Poetry Library contains first editions of Trethewey’s works.