Tracy K. Smith is the author of four books of poetry: The Body's Question (2003), which won the Cave Canem prize for the best first book by an African-American poet; Duende (2007), winner of the James Laughlin Award and the Essense Literary Award; Life on Mars (2011), winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry; and Wade in the Water (2018). She has also written a memoir, Ordinary Light (2015), which was a finalist for the National Book Award in nonfiction. From 1997-99, she held a Stegner fellowship, and in 2014 she was awarded the Academy of American Poets fellowship. Smith served as the 22nd United States Poet Laureate from 2017-19. Currently, she is the director of the Creative Writing Program at Princeton University and hosts American Public Media's daily radio program and podcast The Slowdown.