Smith earns award for second book of poetry

By Ruth Stevens on Oct. 27, 2006, 4:20 p.m.

Tracy K. Smith, an assistant professor of creative writing at Princeton, has been named the winner of the 2006 James Laughlin Award by the Academy of American Poets.

The $5,000 prize recognizes and supports a poet's second book. Smith's "Duende" is forthcoming from Graywolf Press in June 2007. She will receive the award and give a reading on Wednesday, Nov. 8, at the New School in New York City.

Smith joined the Princeton faculty this summer after serving as a visiting assistant professor for a year. She also has taught at the Gotham Writers Workshop in New York, the City University of New York and the University of Pittsburgh.

Smith's "The Body's Question" (Graywolf, 2003), was chosen to receive the Cave Canem Poetry Prize, a prestigious award for a first book by an African American poet. She also has earned a Rona Jaffe Writers' Award and a Whiting Writers' Award. 

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