Interspersed within its pages, prose poetry sidles up … In THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD, Elizabeth Alexander finds herself at an existential crossroads after the sudden death of her husband.

From Grand Central Publishing: In The Light of the World (pub.
As she reflects on the beauty of her married life, the trauma resulting from her husband's death, and the solace found in In THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD, Elizabeth Alexander--poet, mother, and wife--finds herself at an existential crossroads after the death of her husband, who was just 49.

Elizabeth Alexander – poet, educator, memoirist, scholar, and cultural advocate – is president of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the nation’s largest funder in arts and culture, and humanities in higher education. Elizabeth Alexander – poet, educator, memoirist, scholar, and cultural advocate – is president of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the nation’s largest funder in arts and culture, and humanities in higher education. Channeling her poetic sensibilities into a rich, lucid prose, Alexander tells a love story that is, itself, a story of loss. Her writing explores such subjects as race, gender, politics, art, and history. Reese Brogan, Brynn Hall, Olivia Patrick, Ashlyn Bolduc, Elizabeth Hall, Shane Mathis, Amy Little, Leigh Ann Cannady & Maddie Alexander) on TikTok. The Light of the World: A Memoir Elizabeth Alexander ““Art tries to capture that which we know leaves us, as we move in and out of each other’s lives, as we all must eventually leave this earth. Now a widow with two teenage sons, Alexander began the lengthy, often wrenching process of mourning the man who had been the “light of [her] world.” With tenderness and fierce poetic precision, Alexander recalls the hours, days, months and years after her husband’s death. Photo: Alpha Smoot. Winners. She is currently a chancellor of the Academy of American … Elizabeth Alexander was born in Harlem, New York, but grew up in Washington, DC, the daughter of former United States Secretary of the Army and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission chairman, Clifford Alexander Jr. She holds degrees from Yale, Boston University, and the University of Pennsylvania, where she earned her PhD.
Channeling her poetic sensibilities into a rich, lucid price, Alexander tells a love story that is, itself, a story of loss. These lines from the opening of Elizabeth Alexander’s new memoir The Light of The World pull us into the lives of Elizabeth and Ficre. Named after a poetry quote of Derek Walcott’s, (“And I thought, O Beauty, you are the light of the world!”), the memoir Light of the World by Elizabeth Alexander reads like a mixed media form of artwork. Finalist: The Light of the World: A Memoir, by Elizabeth Alexander (Grand Central Publishing) Share: Twitter Facebook Email A prose elegy and love story told in a lyrical voice that carries the author and her readers across the difficult terrain from grief to consolation. A deeply resonant memoir for anyone who has loved and lost, from acclaimed poet and Pulitzer Prize finalist Elizabeth Alexander. A prose elegy and love story told in a lyrical voice that carries the author and her readers across the difficult terrain from grief to consolation. In The Light of the World, Elizabeth Alexander finds herself at an existential crossroads after the sudden death of her husband. Elizabeth Alexander was born in Harlem, New York, but grew up in Washington, DC, the daughter of former United States Secretary of the Army and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission chairman, Clifford Alexander Jr. She holds degrees from Yale, Boston University, and the University of Pennsylvania, where she earned her PhD.