News at Eleven: "I try to step into the story

and try on all the shoes in the story until those shoes get really uncomfortable," [Patricia] Smith said. "You're responding to a human situation; it becomes a universal thing. I'm not trying to have the correct credentials for writing this book. I'm not from New Orleans, but it's good if you think I am."

from Susan Larson: The Times-Picayune: Three years later, poems are still putting the impact of Hurricane Katrina into words

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