Announced this past Wednesday, the new Poet Laureate to the Library of Congress is Tracy K. Smith.
Here is the story from the Wednesday broadcast of the PBS Newshour
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/art/watch-new-u-s-poet-laureate-tracy-k-smith-read-two-poems/
An excerpt from the story:
[i]The 45-year-old Princeton University professor, who was born in Falmouth, Massachusetts, was appointed as the U.S. poet laureate on Wednesday. The Library of Congress says the duties of a poet laureate are to “raise the national consciousness to a greater appreciation of the reading and writing of poetry,” but beyond that, how they do it is up to them.
“I think the responsibility really is to just help raise the awareness of poetry and its value in our culture,” Smith told NPR (National Public Radio). “To me that means talking to people — getting off the usual path of literary festivals and university reading series and talking to people who might not even yet be readers of poetry.”[/i]
I would like to note that Tracy K. Smith is an African American woman.