The House of Being
Natasha Trethewey
(Author)
Description
"Trethewey doesn't just explore the reasons why she writes. She also offers a compassionate argument for why we must all be the authors of our own stories."--Shannon Carlin, Time
"Searching and intimate, this impresses."--Publishers Weekly
In a shotgun house in Gulfport, Mississippi, at the crossroads of Highway 49, the legendary highway of the Blues, and Jefferson Street, Natasha Trethewey learned to read and write. Before the land was a crossroads, however, it was a pasture: a farming settlement where, after the Civil War, a group of formerly enslaved women, men, and children made a new home.
In this intimate and searching meditation, Trethewey revisits the geography of her childhood to trace the origins of her writing life, born of the need to create new metaphors to inhabit "so that my story would not be determined for me." She recalls the markers of history and culture that dotted the horizons of her youth: the Confederate flags proudly flown throughout Mississippi; her gradual understanding of her own identity as the child of a Black mother and a white father; and her grandmother's collages lining the hallway, offering glimpses of the world as it could be. With the clarity of a prophet and the grace of a poet, Trethewey offers up a vision of writing as reclamation: of our own lives and the stories of the vanished, forgotten, and erased.
Product Details
| Publisher | Yale University Press |
| Publish Date | April 09, 2024 |
| Pages | 96 |
| Language | English |
| Type |  Hardback |
| EAN/UPC | 9780300265927 |
| Dimensions | 7.2 X 4.9 X 0.7 inches | 0.5 pounds |
About the Author
Reviews
"The House of Being is a testament to Trethewey's command of language and her willingness to confront those difficult periods in her life that transformed her. . . . A monologue, a work of biography, an essay on literature and memory, a prose poem full of lyrical dexterity, [and] ultimately a study of maturation."--Edna Bonhomme, Nation
"Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Trethewey muses about her development as a writer in this candid meditation. . . . Searching and intimate, this impresses."--Publishers Weekly
"A slim yet stunning collection of essays."--Elizabeth Lund, Christian Science Monitor
"In this lyrical, thoughtful volume, Trethewey not only makes surprising, insightful connections between personal and national history; she also paints a profound portrait of unresolvable grief. . . . A thoughtful meditation on a celebrated poet's reasons for writing."--Kirkus Reviews
"An elegant and deeply personal exploration. . . . House of Being articulates a key part in the writer's mission: to move us beyond the question of 'Why I write' to contemplate 'How I think, ' and even 'What I know.'"--Ann Leamon, Arts Fuse
"Reading this book hurts. . . . But it hurts with the pain that is the pathway to peace. . . . Creating from within the place of memory, as Natasha Trethewey elegantly demonstrates, gives our experience and memory purposeful, permanent meaning."--Dixie Dillon Lane, Current
"A powerful literary punch to the body politic of racist America."--Keith Garebian, World Literature Today
"The House of Being is a slender volume, but profound. It forms part of Trethewey's ongoing search for language that tells us who we are and how we got here."--Steve Harrison, Alabama Writers' Forum
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