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Beyond Katrina: A Meditation on the Mississippi Gulf Coast
Beyond Katrina is poet Natasha Trethewey’s very personal profile of the Mississippi Gulf Coast and of the people there whose lives were forever changed by hurricane Katrina. Trethewey spent her childhood in Gulfport, where much of her mother’s extended family, including her younger brother, still lives. As she worked to understand the devastation that followed the hurricane, Trethewey found inspiration in Robert Penn Warren’s book The Inner Conflict in the South , in which he spoke with southerners about race in the wake of the Brown decision, capturing an event of wide impact from multiple points of view. Weaving her own memories with the experiences of family, friends, and neighbors, Trethewey traces the erosion of local culture and the rising economic dependence on tourism and casinos. She chronicles decades of wetland development that exacerbated the destruction and portrays a Gulf Coast whose citizens—particularly African Americans—were on the margins of American life well before the storm hit. Most poignantly, Trethewey illustrates the destruction of the hurricane through the story of her brother’s efforts to recover what he lost and his subsequent incarceration. Renowned for writing about the idea of home, Trethewey’s attempt to understand and document the damage to Gulfport started as a series of lectures at the University of Virginia that were subsequently published as essays in the Virginia Quarterly Review . For Beyond Katrina , Trethewey has expanded this work into a narrative that incorporates personal letters, poems, and photographs, offering a moving meditation on the love she holds for her childhood home. A Sarah Mills Hodge Fund Publication.
127 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2010
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About the author
Natasha Trethewey
41 books782 followersNatasha Trethewey is an American poet who was appointed United States Poet Laureate in June 2012; she began her official duties in September. She won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry for her 2006 collection Native Guard, and she is the Poet Laureate of Mississippi.
She is the Robert W. Woodruff Professor of English and Creative Writing at Emory University, where she also directs the Creative Writing Program.
Trethewey was born in Gulfport, Mississippi, on April 26, 1966, Confederate Memorial Day, to Eric Trethewey and Gwendolyn Ann Turnbough, who were married illegally at the time of her birth, a year before the U.S. Supreme Court struck down anti-miscegenation laws with Loving v. Virginia. Her birth certificate noted the race of her mother as "colored", and the race of her father as “Canadian”.
Trethewey's mother, a social worker, was part of the inspiration for Native Guard, which is dedicated to her memory. Trethewey's parents divorced when she was young and Turnbough was murdered in 1985 by her second husband, whom she had recently divorced, when Trethewey was 19 years old. Recalling her reaction to her mother's death, she said, "that was the moment when I both felt that I would become a poet and then immediately afterward felt that I would not. I turned to poetry to make sense of what had happened".
Natasha Trethewey's father is also a poet; he is a professor of English at Hollins University.
Trethewey earned her B.A. in English from the University of Georgia, an M.A. in English and Creative Writing from Hollins University, and an M.F.A. in poetry from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1995. In May 2010 Trethewey delivered the commencement speech at Hollins University and was awarded an honorary doctorate. She had previously received an honorary degree from Delta State University in her native Mississippi.
Structurally, her work combines free verse with more structured, traditional forms like the sonnet and the villanelle. Thematically, her work examines "memory and the racial legacy of America". Bellocq's Ophelia (2002), for example, is a collection of poetry in the form of an epistolary novella; it tells the fictional story a mixed-race prostitute who was photographed by E. J. Bellocq in early 20th-century New Orleans.
The American Civil War makes frequent appearances in her work. Born on Confederate Memorial Day—exactly 100 years afterwards—Trethewey explains that she could not have "escaped learning about the Civil War and what it represented", and that it had fascinated her since childhood. For example, Native Guard tells the story of the Louisiana Native Guards, an all-black regiment in the Union Army, composed mainly of former slaves who enlisted, that guarded the Confederate prisoners of war.
On June 7, 2012, James Billington, the Librarian of Congress, named her the 19th US Poet Laureate. Billington said, after hearing her poetry at the National Book Festival, that he was "immediately struck by a kind of classic quality with a richness and variety of structures with which she presents her poetry … she intermixes her story with the historical story in a way that takes you deep into the human tragedy of it." Newspapers noted that unlike most poets laureate, Trethewey is in the middle of her career. She was also the first laureate to take up residence in Washington, D.C., when she did so in January 2013. On May 14, 2014, Tretheway delivered her final lecture to conclude her second term as US Poet Laureate.
(from Wikipedia)
She is the Robert W. Woodruff Professor of English and Creative Writing at Emory University, where she also directs the Creative Writing Program.
Trethewey was born in Gulfport, Mississippi, on April 26, 1966, Confederate Memorial Day, to Eric Trethewey and Gwendolyn Ann Turnbough, who were married illegally at the time of her birth, a year before the U.S. Supreme Court struck down anti-miscegenation laws with Loving v. Virginia. Her birth certificate noted the race of her mother as "colored", and the race of her father as “Canadian”.
Trethewey's mother, a social worker, was part of the inspiration for Native Guard, which is dedicated to her memory. Trethewey's parents divorced when she was young and Turnbough was murdered in 1985 by her second husband, whom she had recently divorced, when Trethewey was 19 years old. Recalling her reaction to her mother's death, she said, "that was the moment when I both felt that I would become a poet and then immediately afterward felt that I would not. I turned to poetry to make sense of what had happened".
Natasha Trethewey's father is also a poet; he is a professor of English at Hollins University.
Trethewey earned her B.A. in English from the University of Georgia, an M.A. in English and Creative Writing from Hollins University, and an M.F.A. in poetry from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1995. In May 2010 Trethewey delivered the commencement speech at Hollins University and was awarded an honorary doctorate. She had previously received an honorary degree from Delta State University in her native Mississippi.
Structurally, her work combines free verse with more structured, traditional forms like the sonnet and the villanelle. Thematically, her work examines "memory and the racial legacy of America". Bellocq's Ophelia (2002), for example, is a collection of poetry in the form of an epistolary novella; it tells the fictional story a mixed-race prostitute who was photographed by E. J. Bellocq in early 20th-century New Orleans.
The American Civil War makes frequent appearances in her work. Born on Confederate Memorial Day—exactly 100 years afterwards—Trethewey explains that she could not have "escaped learning about the Civil War and what it represented", and that it had fascinated her since childhood. For example, Native Guard tells the story of the Louisiana Native Guards, an all-black regiment in the Union Army, composed mainly of former slaves who enlisted, that guarded the Confederate prisoners of war.
On June 7, 2012, James Billington, the Librarian of Congress, named her the 19th US Poet Laureate. Billington said, after hearing her poetry at the National Book Festival, that he was "immediately struck by a kind of classic quality with a richness and variety of structures with which she presents her poetry … she intermixes her story with the historical story in a way that takes you deep into the human tragedy of it." Newspapers noted that unlike most poets laureate, Trethewey is in the middle of her career. She was also the first laureate to take up residence in Washington, D.C., when she did so in January 2013. On May 14, 2014, Tretheway delivered her final lecture to conclude her second term as US Poet Laureate.
(from Wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 88 reviews
February 20, 2019
Natasha Trethewey is the former Poet Laureate of the United States. She won the Pulitzer for her Native Guard poetry which features imagery of the history of the Gulf Coast region. Evoking telling passages of the history of Mississippi dating back to the antebellum period, Trethewey is a gifted story teller. Here, she penned reflections on how her family and community of Gulfport, Mississippi has rebuilt since Hurricane Katrina. With a mix between her always stunning poems and exquisite prose, Trethewey’s words are always a joy to read, even while discussing topics that are not so rosy. The gulf between rich and poor and white and black in recovering what once was is apparent, as in the Gulfport region, the rich have gotten richer, while the poor, usually people of color, have remained as they are. It is always a pleasure to read Trethewey’s words, which I hope have a calming effect on the community that her family helped built.
4+ stars
4+ stars
July 21, 2012
Natasha Trethewey, the newly selected Poet Laureate of the U.S. and current professor of English and Creative Writing at Emory University, wrote this book, a combination of memoir, history and elegy, about her family and other residents of the Mississippi Gulf Coast, which was decimated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Although the eye of the storm made landfall in Louisiana, the brunt of the winds and the associated coastal flooding was felt in cities such as Bay St. Louis, Pass Christian, Gulfport and Biloxi, Mississippi. Over 90% of these towns were flooded, and nearly all private residences and public buildings suffered moderate to severe damage. At least 235 people were killed in the state as a result, and the region continues to feel the effects of the storm seven years later.
Natasha Trethewey grew up in North Gulfport, a mostly African-American portion of the city, from the mid 1960s to the early 1980s. Although racial segregation and discrimination was formally outlawed by the time of her birth, its effects lingered in the Deep South for many years afterward, as many blacks continued to frequent stores owned by their neighbors and to employ local tradesmen. One of these men was her great-uncle Willie Dixon, known as "Son" to his family and neighbors, who used his earnings from his nightclub to repair, buy and sell rental properties in North Gulfport.
Her younger brother Joe took over the family business after Uncle Son's death, and his story of steady success followed by devastation and tragedy is the central element of this book. Although federal funding was allocated to the residents of central and southern Mississippi, government officials and local politicians diverted much of it to the wealthier residents and the growing tourism and gambling industries, leaving behind many of the region's poorer residents, both black and white. Trethewey describes the mismanagement of the coastal wetland by local developers, and how it contributed to the disastrous flooding. People employed as service workers by the gambling industry and in construction suffered mightily, as they lost their jobs and their homes in less than 48 hours. Many got their jobs back, but property owners increased their rents substantially, leaving many of them unable to pay their bills. Local businessmen, particularly in North Gulfport, were also adversely affected, due to ordinances that permitted the city to take over their land if their owners decided to rebuild their damaged properties.
Trethewey occasionally refers to an unforgettable quote by fellow Southern writer Flannery O'Connor to describe the feelings she and her fellow Mississippians shared in the aftermath of Katrina: "Where you came from is gone. Where you thought you were going to never was there. And where you are is no good unless you can get away from it." She also uses her own formidable skill as a poet to tell the stories of those whose lives have been ruined by the storm, such as Tamara Jones in her poem Believer:
She closes the book on a hopeful note, despite the serious trouble her brother finds himself in, and the reader is left with the sense that the survivors of Katrina will fight back against the odds and reclaim their livelihood and the heritage that defines the proud state of Mississippi.
Beyond Katrina is a powerful testament and statement by this uniquely gifted writer, whose talent will now receive wider attention in her new position as America's poet laureate. I look forward to her upcoming poetry collection Thrall, which will explore her relationship with her white father, a professor of poetry at Hollins College, and her experiences as an interracial child and young woman.
Natasha Trethewey grew up in North Gulfport, a mostly African-American portion of the city, from the mid 1960s to the early 1980s. Although racial segregation and discrimination was formally outlawed by the time of her birth, its effects lingered in the Deep South for many years afterward, as many blacks continued to frequent stores owned by their neighbors and to employ local tradesmen. One of these men was her great-uncle Willie Dixon, known as "Son" to his family and neighbors, who used his earnings from his nightclub to repair, buy and sell rental properties in North Gulfport.
Her younger brother Joe took over the family business after Uncle Son's death, and his story of steady success followed by devastation and tragedy is the central element of this book. Although federal funding was allocated to the residents of central and southern Mississippi, government officials and local politicians diverted much of it to the wealthier residents and the growing tourism and gambling industries, leaving behind many of the region's poorer residents, both black and white. Trethewey describes the mismanagement of the coastal wetland by local developers, and how it contributed to the disastrous flooding. People employed as service workers by the gambling industry and in construction suffered mightily, as they lost their jobs and their homes in less than 48 hours. Many got their jobs back, but property owners increased their rents substantially, leaving many of them unable to pay their bills. Local businessmen, particularly in North Gulfport, were also adversely affected, due to ordinances that permitted the city to take over their land if their owners decided to rebuild their damaged properties.
Trethewey occasionally refers to an unforgettable quote by fellow Southern writer Flannery O'Connor to describe the feelings she and her fellow Mississippians shared in the aftermath of Katrina: "Where you came from is gone. Where you thought you were going to never was there. And where you are is no good unless you can get away from it." She also uses her own formidable skill as a poet to tell the stories of those whose lives have been ruined by the storm, such as Tamara Jones in her poem Believer:
The house is in need of repair, but is—
for now, she says—still hers. After the storm,
she laid hands on what she could reclaim:
the iron table and chairs etched with rust,
the dresser laced with mold. Four years gone,
she's still rebuilding the shed out back
and sorting through boxes in the kitchen—
a lifetime of bills and receipts, deeds
and warranties, notices spread on the table,
a barrage of red ink: PAST DUE. Now,
the house is a museum of everything.
she can't let go: a pile of photographs—
fused and peeling—water stains blurring
the handwritten names of people she can't recall;
a drawer crowded with funeral programs
and church fans, rubber bands and paper sleeves
for pennies, nickels, and dimes. What stops me
is the stack of tithing envelopes. Reading my face,
she must know I can't see why—even now—
she tithes, why she keeps giving to the church.
First seek the kingdom of God, she tells me,
and the rest will follow—says it twice
as if to make a talisman of her words.
She closes the book on a hopeful note, despite the serious trouble her brother finds himself in, and the reader is left with the sense that the survivors of Katrina will fight back against the odds and reclaim their livelihood and the heritage that defines the proud state of Mississippi.
Beyond Katrina is a powerful testament and statement by this uniquely gifted writer, whose talent will now receive wider attention in her new position as America's poet laureate. I look forward to her upcoming poetry collection Thrall, which will explore her relationship with her white father, a professor of poetry at Hollins College, and her experiences as an interracial child and young woman.
September 1, 2022
Extremely touching. Had to step away a few times because of how sorrowful some of the situations were but I am glad I read this.
November 11, 2020
Beyond Katrina was my book club's selection for November, and we had the meeting/discussion last night. I needed that to help frame my thoughts about this one, as my didn't really love it or hate it feelings needed some context to process my review. There were parts of the book I sincerely appreciated, primarily the family history and the discussion of the changes (social and financial) caused by the casinos on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Other parts, while interesting, never acquired the depth I felt was needed to have me attach emotionally or intellectually to the narrative. As we discussed last night, the book's lack of firm direction or resolution was most likely intentional, but I would have appreciated more per personal preference. Nice addition to the post-Katrina cannon, but it wasn't my favorite book on the topic I've read.
August 8, 2012
A sad and lovely book--part family remembrance, part poetry, part history of the Mississippi Gulf Coast. It reads like a letting go, a grieving, and I think the strength of the book is how Natasha Trethewey evokes the way a place can form so much of our identity. Trethewey was recently named U.S. poet laureate, and several of her poems are included. It took me a little while to settle into the book, with all the moving back and forth in time and various people, but in the end the book comes together in a beautiful and (I think) brilliant way.
November 10, 2022
A quick but powerful read exploring the often overlooked Gulf Coast of Mississippi devastated by Katrina. Intermingled with her own poetry, this book really is a "meditation" on not just physical erosion, destruction, and rebuilding but also the cultural, racial, and personal experiences simultaneously. Definitely made me rethink my own memory of hurricane Katrina.
May 2, 2021
This was an elegant exploration of recent history, juxtaposing deeply personal family memories with the truth of our failure in addressing catastrophes as communities. It takes a poet, sometimes, to reveal what journalists cannot, and what politicians won't.
June 7, 2025
Part history, part reflection on the environment, part memoir, Tretheway honors the history of Hurricane Katrina in Mississippi. MS has largely been overlooked in comparison to the tragedy of New Orleans, so Tretheway’s reflections are a welcome addition to disaster and how it affects all kinds of systems. (Also poetry, pictures, and prose).
February 19, 2022
I’m sorry but what was the point of this book? Read this for my comp 2 class- very much against my own will- and I’m not sure what this book was about. She talks about the hurricane and that’s it. Except for the last 20 pages she talks about her brother in jail, that’s the only part of the book I found somewhat interesting. If you like and understand this book good for you. I personally see no point to it. At least it’s short.
August 12, 2019
A prose account of the hurricane’s effect on Gulfport, Mississippi, linked with poems that illustrate her family’s multi-generational legacy in the region. This project then evolves into an almost elegy of her brother, who was arrested a few years after the storm.
June 26, 2013
I'm always happy when I find a nonfiction book to share that has a strong voice and powerful narrative. Most of the time when you hear the word "Katrina," you immediately think about New Orleans, but instead Trethewey wants you to know how this affected the lives of those outside of New Orleans in places like Mississippi. She not only talks about the destruction, but what led up to the hurricane, including one in '65 and the aftermath of those economically disadvantaged.
I felt outraged by the price jacking and such sorrow after reading about what Trethewey's brother accomplished right before Hurricane Katrina hit. There are some many historical notes mixed in with stories of amazing family members that were able to build their own little fortunes, which would later end due to a variety of circumstances.
Somehow, Trethewey did not prepare me for the emotional blows faced by the incarceration of her brother. As a reader I was so wrapped up in her family history, what they accomplished, and the economic disadvantages the poor faced before and after the hurricane, that his story shocked me- even though it was stated explicitly in the blurb. You're shown this story of hope, survival, and loss when you learn about what led to her brother's incarceration. It's tempting to wanting to trace the root and cause of the crime to Katrina as his life changed so much after the hurricane. I'm sure others may disagree, but I wonder what his life would have been like had Katrina not occurred.
She's never preachy and doesn't go out of her way to say this book is about racial injustice, as it's more about social justice and what happens when the poor are abandoned and forgotten. It's about how the scope and damage of Hurricane Katrina extended beyond New Orleans, and sadly how the scars of Katrina are still visible.
I would say this book is about moving past or beyond Katrina and trying to make sense out of what happened. The research and history into the Gulf Coast was richly done and the narrative structure along with random poems interspersed within gave this book the feel of a story, than a plain nonfiction book.
I think if you've been wanting to read an amazing nonfiction book and were not certain where to start, this book would be it. It's not exactly a topic that would seem to hold anyone's interest as a hurricane in itself is fairly boring, but when blended in with the various stories and lives of those on the Gulf Coast, then Katrina becomes more than a hurricane, but a time where you could clearly delineate the before and after and what it meant to those who experienced it.
I felt outraged by the price jacking and such sorrow after reading about what Trethewey's brother accomplished right before Hurricane Katrina hit. There are some many historical notes mixed in with stories of amazing family members that were able to build their own little fortunes, which would later end due to a variety of circumstances.
Somehow, Trethewey did not prepare me for the emotional blows faced by the incarceration of her brother. As a reader I was so wrapped up in her family history, what they accomplished, and the economic disadvantages the poor faced before and after the hurricane, that his story shocked me- even though it was stated explicitly in the blurb. You're shown this story of hope, survival, and loss when you learn about what led to her brother's incarceration. It's tempting to wanting to trace the root and cause of the crime to Katrina as his life changed so much after the hurricane. I'm sure others may disagree, but I wonder what his life would have been like had Katrina not occurred.
She's never preachy and doesn't go out of her way to say this book is about racial injustice, as it's more about social justice and what happens when the poor are abandoned and forgotten. It's about how the scope and damage of Hurricane Katrina extended beyond New Orleans, and sadly how the scars of Katrina are still visible.
I would say this book is about moving past or beyond Katrina and trying to make sense out of what happened. The research and history into the Gulf Coast was richly done and the narrative structure along with random poems interspersed within gave this book the feel of a story, than a plain nonfiction book.
I think if you've been wanting to read an amazing nonfiction book and were not certain where to start, this book would be it. It's not exactly a topic that would seem to hold anyone's interest as a hurricane in itself is fairly boring, but when blended in with the various stories and lives of those on the Gulf Coast, then Katrina becomes more than a hurricane, but a time where you could clearly delineate the before and after and what it meant to those who experienced it.
June 18, 2021
This small, gentle book calls itself “a meditation on the Mississippi Gulf Coast”, and it’s very thought-provoking. It begins by describing how Katrina changed the landscape, and to do this, she needs to go back and describe it as it was before the storm hit. We get a picture of the way people lived, both before and after segregation was outlawed. This is where Tretheway’s family was located, so we meet her uncle Son, who started a bar called the Owl Club, and many others.
The end of the book is the most moving. Tretheway’s brother Joe had been very successful before Katrina, managing the Owl Bar and renting out small, inexpensive houses. But in the aftermath of the storm, those opportunities dried up, so he ended up making money by doing something illegal, and then wound up in prison. Tretheway’s words are spare and poetic, as she shares her glimpses of him in the courtroom, in a police car going to his grandmother’s funeral, and finally, coming out of prison.
Some quotes:
< It is commonplace that the landscape is inscribed with the traces of things long gone. Everywhere the names of towns, rivers, shopping malls, and subdivisions bear witness to vanished Native American tribes, communities of former slaves, long-ago industrial districts and transit routes. We speak these names often unaware of their history, forgetting how they came to be. Each generation is further from the events and the people to which the names refer – these relics becoming more and more abstract. No longer talismans of memory, the words are monuments nonetheless. >
< The morning after the storm, hundreds of live oaks still stood among the rubble along the coast. They held in their branches a car, a boat, pages torn from books, furniture. Some people who managed to climb out of windows had clung to the oaks for survival as the waters rose. These ancient trees, some as many as five hundred years old, remain as monuments not only to the storm but to something beyond Katrina as well – sentries, standing guard, they witness the history of the coast. >
The end of the book is the most moving. Tretheway’s brother Joe had been very successful before Katrina, managing the Owl Bar and renting out small, inexpensive houses. But in the aftermath of the storm, those opportunities dried up, so he ended up making money by doing something illegal, and then wound up in prison. Tretheway’s words are spare and poetic, as she shares her glimpses of him in the courtroom, in a police car going to his grandmother’s funeral, and finally, coming out of prison.
Some quotes:
< It is commonplace that the landscape is inscribed with the traces of things long gone. Everywhere the names of towns, rivers, shopping malls, and subdivisions bear witness to vanished Native American tribes, communities of former slaves, long-ago industrial districts and transit routes. We speak these names often unaware of their history, forgetting how they came to be. Each generation is further from the events and the people to which the names refer – these relics becoming more and more abstract. No longer talismans of memory, the words are monuments nonetheless. >
< The morning after the storm, hundreds of live oaks still stood among the rubble along the coast. They held in their branches a car, a boat, pages torn from books, furniture. Some people who managed to climb out of windows had clung to the oaks for survival as the waters rose. These ancient trees, some as many as five hundred years old, remain as monuments not only to the storm but to something beyond Katrina as well – sentries, standing guard, they witness the history of the coast. >
February 12, 2017
3.5 stars. I like how Trethewey interspersed her poetry with the prose.
January 30, 2012
Beyond Katrina is a book that stretches past the devastation of the notoriously famous "Katrina" and digs deeper into the history of the people, communities, and lives of those who live in the Gulf Coast. We see how life was before, during, and after Katrina whipped wild winds and dumped dangerous levels of water on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, an area rarely mentioned in the news for having encountered or survived Hurricane Katrina. This text is beautifully written in prose and poetry and the insertion of personal images of Natasha Trethewey and her family does what the media could not do during the storm: it made the story personal.
There is no question as to why Natasha Trethewey is a Pulitzer Prize winner. The pages of this text are beautifully written and the honesty in which she reveals herself (particularly her flaws) and her family gripped me and forced me to share in the pain and triumph of her experiences.
There's really nothing else I can say other than I absolutely LOVE this book!!
There is no question as to why Natasha Trethewey is a Pulitzer Prize winner. The pages of this text are beautifully written and the honesty in which she reveals herself (particularly her flaws) and her family gripped me and forced me to share in the pain and triumph of her experiences.
There's really nothing else I can say other than I absolutely LOVE this book!!
July 13, 2017
I had the incredible honor of having lunch with Natasha Tretheway while I was doing my PhD at Georgia State University.
I remeber her telling us how she got informed about her Pultzer Prize award.
This is the first complete work I have read written by her and I understand the inmense value of her poetry and reflections. Reading about post- katrina Mississippi, where: "recovery takes a long time", the poet not only reflects about things that are gone, the memory of things quickly vanished after such a devastating storm, but also about the politics behind it.
What really impacted me is Tretheway´s courage and brutal honesty when she talks about her incarcerated brother, about the relationship they have now that he is in jail. Tretheway claims: " How I am going to live when my heart is in prison" and I think that in some way this medidation about the Mississippi Gulf Coast is a way of giving voice to such pain.
I remeber her telling us how she got informed about her Pultzer Prize award.
This is the first complete work I have read written by her and I understand the inmense value of her poetry and reflections. Reading about post- katrina Mississippi, where: "recovery takes a long time", the poet not only reflects about things that are gone, the memory of things quickly vanished after such a devastating storm, but also about the politics behind it.
What really impacted me is Tretheway´s courage and brutal honesty when she talks about her incarcerated brother, about the relationship they have now that he is in jail. Tretheway claims: " How I am going to live when my heart is in prison" and I think that in some way this medidation about the Mississippi Gulf Coast is a way of giving voice to such pain.
January 7, 2022
Actually I reread Native Guard but I don’t know how to do that in the Goodreads statistics. Actually, read Native Guard four times. It is that good.
January 29, 2012
Part of my reaction to this book was due to my misunderstanding of its premise; I thought it would be more of a historical or sociological look back at the effects of Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast, but it was more of a memoir or essay combined with poetry. It was OK but I found myself becoming impatient with the meandering and unclear language. I was looking for something more straightforward.
April 19, 2020
To truly understand any event of the past, you must consult a variety of voices. Hurricane Katrina, to which I have personal ties, has become synonymous with the destruction of New Orleans. This book will tell you another part of the story which is overlooked.
May 5, 2011
I liked how she wrote about her brother against the back drop of Katrina and the rebuilding afterwards.
A story we don't hear or read about. A documentation of brown folks lives.
A story we don't hear or read about. A documentation of brown folks lives.
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October 9, 2025One of my favorite passages of the book that I think sums up the themes - family history and the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, and who is left behind.
Nine months after Katrina, I went home for the first time. Driving down Highway 49, after passing my grandmother’s house, I went straight to the cemetery where my mother is buried. It was more ragged than usual—the sandy plots overgrown with weeds. The fence around it was still up, so I counted the entrances until I reached the fourth one, which opened onto the gravel road where I knew I’d find her. I searched first for the large, misshapen shrub that had always showed me to her grave, and found it gone. My own negligence had revisited me, and I stood there foolishly, a woman who’d never erected a monument on her mother’s grave. I walked in circles, stooping to push back grass and weeds until I found the concrete border that marked the plots of my ancestors. It was nearly overtaken, nearly sunken beneath the dirt and grass. How foolish of me to think of monuments and memory, of inscribing the landscape with narratives of remembrance, as I stood looking at my mother’s near-vanished grave in the post-Katrina landscape to which I’d brought my heavy bag of nostalgia. I see now that remembrance is an individual duty as well—a duty native to us as citizens, as daughters and sons. Private liturgy: I vow to put a stone here, emblazoned with her name. Not far from the cemetery, I wandered the vacant lot where a church had been. Debris still littered the grass. Everywhere, there were pages torn from hymnals, Bibles, psalms pressed into the grass as if they were cemented there. I bent close, trying to read one; to someone driving by along the beach, I must have looked like a woman praying.
January 3, 2018
Natasha Trethewey is one of the hundreds of posts who reside in my top ten list of favorite poets, I have such lists for fiction and non-fiction authors too. I've always appreciated Trethewey's facility with creating volumes of poetry that transcend my perception of a poetry collection by unveiling a grander narrative which is told through a sequences of poems. I think Bellocq's Ophelia is a masterpiece and,,as a man who was a disappointment to his father, I cherish the love and maybe understand the resentment Trethewey addresses toward her father in Thrall. The current book, Beyond Katrina, contains poems but is not a book of poems. This is a book that speaks truth to power by showing how the aftermath of Katrina devastated the African-American community of North Gulfport, particularly revealing the toll it took on Trethewey's maternal and immediate family. This is a book that personalizes the evolution of 21st Century racism that courses through Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow. Beyond Katrina also serves as a harbinger of the cruelty that has become the official United States position toward reconstruction and concern for the lives of the men, women and children in Puerto Rico in the wake of Hurricane Maria.
December 12, 2023
So, Katrina didn't only affect New Orleans. Of course. But as someone who only knew about the disaster from the news, until I read this book I'd never heard about Katrina's destruction of the Mississippi Gulf Coast. And I didn't know about how the coast's rapid casino-financed reconstruction risks erasure of the stories, lives, and culture of its people, even while providing livelihoods. In this respect, the book reminds me of The Nickel Boys, and I mourn the loss of this history.
But another idea that Trethewey focuses on is the power of monument, and how even small mementos have the power to preserve. I'm grateful for this collection of memoir and poem that preserves the stories of the author's family and the neighbors of her ancestral home. I'm just overwhelmed by how many others may never be heard, not just from here but from every other corner of the world. And I understand the opportunity that we all have to listen.
But another idea that Trethewey focuses on is the power of monument, and how even small mementos have the power to preserve. I'm grateful for this collection of memoir and poem that preserves the stories of the author's family and the neighbors of her ancestral home. I'm just overwhelmed by how many others may never be heard, not just from here but from every other corner of the world. And I understand the opportunity that we all have to listen.
August 8, 2025
Usually, I love Natasha Tretheway's work. The poems she has in this selection are, of course, impeccable. However, I had a really hard time with the prose portions of the book. I had trouble connecting some of the content to Hurricane Katrina, for example, her brother's incarceration. I felt that it was implied that the two incidents were connected, but not clear.
Admittedly, I also had a bit of personal struggle with some of her claims regarding hurricane Katrina's impact on New Orleans. While Mississippi was historically neglected in media representations of Katrina's impact, I felt like some of her claims minimized the damage done to New Orleans. Both areas needed and deserved empathy and assistance. What counts as "recovered" is complicated, but two things can be true at once: Mississippi was neglected in the media during this time, but financially speaking, is estimated to have been ten years ahead of Louisiana in recovery.
Admittedly, I also had a bit of personal struggle with some of her claims regarding hurricane Katrina's impact on New Orleans. While Mississippi was historically neglected in media representations of Katrina's impact, I felt like some of her claims minimized the damage done to New Orleans. Both areas needed and deserved empathy and assistance. What counts as "recovered" is complicated, but two things can be true at once: Mississippi was neglected in the media during this time, but financially speaking, is estimated to have been ten years ahead of Louisiana in recovery.
November 9, 2021
This book is split into two sections: 2007 & 2009. The 2007 section gives a lot of the history of Biloxi, Mississippi and the Gulf Coast and includes a broad range of stories from people affected by hurricane Katrina and the unequal distribution of disaster relief funds. The 2009 section focuses mostly on Trethewey’s own family history and her brother’s incarceration. I found the 2009 section much more compelling. The first section feels very disjointed, and I think the book would have been much more compelling had it been set in 2009 and included episodic flashbacks. Instead of writing the book chronologically, I feel that a non-linear, thematic organization would have been more impactful.
Trethewey’s work, nonetheless, is so important as she seeks to voice suppressed post-Katrina narratives that counter the preferred triumphant recovery stories that the media popularized.
Trethewey’s work, nonetheless, is so important as she seeks to voice suppressed post-Katrina narratives that counter the preferred triumphant recovery stories that the media popularized.
October 21, 2020
This book was VERY GOOD. I read it in two days for my Southern Lit class. It was a return to the conventions of Southern Lit. There is a clarification of history here. Her prose is much more literary. Trethewey is primarily a poet and here she is mixing prose with poetry. She is more concerned with the legacy of the past even though she shares some of the same concerns that Barthelme does about remembering the past. This book represents a departure from the genres we have read thus far. It is mixed-media and multi-genre. She is not relying on the conventions of storytelling.
Those in poverty have not been able to recover, but those of affluence have been able to. Wonderful read.
Those in poverty have not been able to recover, but those of affluence have been able to. Wonderful read.
February 28, 2025
I love reading prose written by poets, and this book was no exception. Trethewey includes some poetry along with her essays about Gulfport, Mississippi before and after the devastation of Katrina. We learn about the transformation of the coast from wilderness and small towns to casinos and hotels. At first, the construction offers hope for revitalization and jobs for the unemployed, but in the end these developments force out the poorer residents and endanger the natural resources of the coast. Trethewey interweaves stories about her family and her childhood, and her writing is graceful, informative and emotionally rich.
June 6, 2024
The writing wasn't very compelling--especially the poetry. I guess I expected language more wrought than raw. But this is such an important testimony. I had a strong emotional response at various moments. I felt the humid, heart-heaviness in the air. I understood this book as witness to the gross neglect of landscape and people. I learned more about the overwhelming injustices that have taken place post-Katrina (not to mention post Horizon--this book was completed before that second Gulf Coast disaster).
Between a 3-4 for me...
Between a 3-4 for me...
May 5, 2018
I admire Threthewey’s poetry and the poems added to this memoir were especially eloquent and moving, but I found myself searching this prose work for the kind of depth they offer. It’s a difficult story to tell, the history of her gulf coast family, the aftermath of Katrina, especially for her brother whose life is dismantled by the storm and by the racist policies that distributed money and opportunity after the storm. A deeply personal challenge for a writer.
February 24, 2023
a very fast read, read this on my random little three day adventure in new orleans aka the mississippi gulf,
learned a lot about community and the natural disaster response (or lack there of, as most of natural disaster relief from the govt went to businesses and ppl w money)
but most importantly , i learned about the social abd hwalth impacts that natural disasters have that arent so natural
stole this book from uhc
learned a lot about community and the natural disaster response (or lack there of, as most of natural disaster relief from the govt went to businesses and ppl w money)
but most importantly , i learned about the social abd hwalth impacts that natural disasters have that arent so natural
stole this book from uhc
May 15, 2017
After hearing Natasha Trethewey speak at the U of I, I was excited to read this combined narrative/poetry book of her reflections, experiences, and feelings about Katrina and other human and natural disasters. New insight and perspectives on Katrina and its aftermath; loved this book.
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