Pulitzer Prize winner and former U.S. poet laureate Natasha Trethewey has been named Oregon State University’s 2026 recipient of the Stone Award for Literary Achievement.
Trethewey will present an evening of poetry and conversation
at 7 p.m. Friday, May 8, at OSU’s Patricia Valian Reser Center for the Creative Arts (PRAx). The event costs $10 or $5 for OSU students.
The Stone Award, which includes a $20,000 honorarium, recognizes major American authors with bodies of critically acclaimed work that influence multiple generations of writers, readers and thinkers. It was last awarded to Indigenous author, botanist and professor Robin Wall Kimmerer in 2024.
“The Stone Award highlights the enduring, essential importance of literary arts at Oregon State,” College of Liberal Arts Dean Philip Williams said. “In honoring Natasha Trethewey’s body of work, we are also honoring the role that poetry and literature play in expanding awareness and cultivating connection.”