Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Natasha Trethewey is receiving an honorary doctorate of letters this weekend from Delta State University.

Trethewey, a Gulfport native, is an English professor at Emory University in Atlanta. She appeared at Delta State in October to discuss her poetry.

Trethewey, 41, was awarded the Pulitzer in April for “Native Guard,” her collection of poems inspired by black Union soldiers stationed on Ship Island, off the Mississippi Gulf Coast, during the Civil War.

She will be presented the honorary doctorate Saturday during Delta State’s winter graduation ceremony.