On Monday, May 8, former U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey will give the keynote speech at Emory University’s 172nd commencement ceremony. She held the 19th Poet Laureate position from 2012 through 2014.

After her term as Poet Laureate, she “placed her archive at Emory, joining a rich collection of literary assets at the university, including the papers of Alice Walker, Lucille Clifton, James Dickey, Seamus Heaney, W.B. Yeats, Ted Hughes and former University Distinguished Professor Salman Rushdie.”

Trethewey currently works as Robert W. Woodruff Professor of English and Creative Writing as well as director of Emory’s Creative Program. However, she will leave Emory University to take a position at Northwestern University this fall.