Audio Interviews

At Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith’s January 11th visit to Cannon Air Force Base, outside Clovis, servicemembers shared their enthusiasm for the poet laureate’s event.

[Credit: Tracy K. Smith, “Dusk” from Wade in the Water. Copyright © 2018 by Tracy K.Smith. Used with the permission of The Permissions Company, Inc. on behalf of Graywolf Press, Minneapolis, Minnesota, www.graywolfpress.org.]

To hear more audio clips from Tracy K. Smith’s visit to New Mexico, listen to “Making ‘American Conversations’: Part 1,” the first episode in a special three-part series of the Library of Congress’ “From the Catbird Seat” podcast that chronicles the origins of the poet laureate’s project. Tune in via our podcast page or your preferred podcast app.

On the podcast, you’ll hear reflections from Poetry and Literature Center Programs Manager Anya Creightney; interviews with Senior Airman Adam Christudoss and Eastern New Mexico Field Representative Ben Salazar (from U.S. Senator Tom Udall’s office) at Cannon Air Force Base; and a recitation of Aracelis Girmay’s poem “Second Estrangement” (from the anthology "American Journal: Fifty Poems for our Time," edited by Tracy K. Smith) by serviceman Nico Wood at Cannon Air Force Base.