Ordinary Light A Memoir [Paperback]

The dazzling memoir from U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith, author ofWade in the WaterandLife on Mars. Named one of the best books of the year byThe New York Times,The Washington Post,San Francisco Chronicle,Denver Post, and Oprah.com.

InOrdinary Light,Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Tracy K. Smith tells her remarkable story, giving us a quietly potent memoir that explores her coming-of-age and the meaning of home against a complex backdrop of race, faith, and the unbreakable bond between a mother and daughter. Here is the story of a young artist struggling to fashion her own understanding of belief, loss, history, and what it means to be black in America.

Remarkable. . . . In a passage of agonizing beauty, Smith notes how far she travelled from the religion that had infused her childhood. The tension is [in] the division between Smith's reflective self and the energy that goes into actively living one's life. The Smith of ORDINARY LIGHT is our Emerson—the Emerson of 'Self-Reliance.' In her world,possibilityis the key. —Hilton Als,The New Yorker

“Engrossing in its spare, simple understatement. . . . Evocative . . . luminous.” —The Washington Post

“A subtle, elegant meditation that reveals the profound in the quotidian. . . . Exquisitely beautiful.” —San Francisco Chronicle

“Honest, unflinching . . . an inspiring model for seeking the light in an ‘ordinary’ life—ask the tough questions, look in the hidden corners, allow yourself to understand and never stop searching for faith.” —O, The Oprah Magazine

“Transcendent. . . . Lovely, languid, and painful.” —Slate

“Smith writes as a daughter who has lost her mother and is thinking of her own daughter. . . . She offers her painstaking reflectil“0