On this episode, 2007 Poetry winner, Natasha Trethewey, and 2025 Memoir finalist, Lucy Sante, join each other at the 2026 AWP Conference for a conversation about memoir writing, and discuss how works rooted in personal experience can connect to larger narratives of race, historical erasure, gender, queerness, and class.
Trethewey is a two-time US Poet Laureate and nonfiction writer, whose acclaimed 2020 memoir, Memorial Drive, was a New York Times Bestseller. Lucy Sante is a renowned cultural critic whose memoir I Heard Her Call My Name was a Pulitzer finalist and named Best Book of the Year by multiple media outlets.
The Association of Writers and Writing Programs Conference (AWP) is an annual event that attracts over 10,000 writers, writing students, educators, publishing professionals and many others. Its 2026 conference took place in Baltimore.
Resources:
You can find a transcript of this episode here.
This conversation was edited from the live event, details of which are here.
Learn more about Pulitzer on the Road and our upcoming events here.
Learn about AWP (the Association of Writers and Writing Programs) here
Listen to other conversations with Pulitzer authors
Jayne Anne Phillips and Viet Thanh Nguyen: On Writing and War
Barbara Kingsolver in Appalachia
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