Beyond Katrina

I am reading Beyond Katrina: A Meditation on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, by Pulitzer-Prize-winning poet Natasha Trethewey, recently published by the University of Georgia Press. (Professor Trethewey is on the creative writing faculty at Emory University.)  The book is a meditation on identity, place, race, and the impact of family.  It is also about the environmental damage wrought by industry and the tourist trade prior to Katrina.  I knew nothing about Trethewey or her writing before I heard her on WHYY's Fresh Air last week, but I was so captivated by her story that I went straight out and bought her book.  At 125 pages, it's a quick but compelling read.

Jamie Baker Roskie