WASHINGTON (AP) - The newest U.S. poet laureate who is the first to hail from the South since 1986 will soon give her inaugural reading at the Library of Congress in Washington.

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Natasha Trethewey, an English and creative writing professor at Emory University in Atlanta, will give her first reading Thursday evening.

The reading is free and open to the public.

In June, Trethewey was named the 19th U.S. poet laureate with a mission to help share the art of poetry with a wider audience.

She is also Mississippi's chief poet. Trethewey is a poet-historian. Part of her work has focused on restoring history that has been erased or forgotten.

Trethewey is the author of four poetry collections.

Her newest collection, "Thrall," was published in August.

She won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 2007.