A Liberating, Time-Traveling Journey Through Family, History, and Memory Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Tracy K. Smith’s powerful new memoir uses her life and family to examine the deepest of American wounds. 7 minute read Family. Memory. Legacy. These words, these themes, build upon each other. Within our families there are shared moments, sometimes of joy, sometimes of pain, that help write our stories. These stories, passed down as lore, or as photographs, become memories.