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Kathryn Stripling Byer Poet, Essayist, and fiction writer

Kathryn Stripling Byer

Biography A native of SW Georgia, I have lived in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina since 1968, when I received my MFA from UNC-Greensboro. My poetry has appeared in numerous anthologies and journals, including "Atlantic Monthly," "Poetry, " "Georgia Review," "American Scholar," and "Cortland Review," and my essays and political commentary in "Shenandoah", "Boston Globe," and "Raleigh News-Observer," as well as other NC newspapers as part of my Language Matters-Nc Poet Laureate columns. My first book, THE GIRL IN THE MIDST OF THE HARVEST, was an Associated Writing Programs Finalist, chosen by John F. Nims, and published by Texas Tech U. Press in 1986. LSU Press has published my subsequent books, including WILDWOOD FLOWER, the Academy of American Poets Lamont Selection in 1992, BLACK SHAWL, chosen by Billy Collins for the Brockman-Campbell Award, and CATCHING LIGHT, the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance Best book of Poetry in 2002. My most recent book, COMING TO REST, received the Hanes Poetry Award from the Fellowship of Southern Writers in 2007. My poetry has been set to music for chorus, mezzo-soprano, soprano, and chamber singers by Martin Bresnick, Harold Schiffman, and William Bolcom. My website can be found at ncarts.org.

Upcoming Works

  • Lost Soul: poetry and short fiction
    Descent: poems
    Southern Fictions: Poems
    The Tellers's Tale: Novel

Favorite Authors

  • Fred Chappell, Lee Smith, Charles F. Price, Isabel Zuber, Rainer Maria Rilke, Barry Lopez, Czeslaw Milosz, George Eliot, John Keats, and William Wordsworth, Margaret Atwood, Mary Oliver, etc., etc.

Relationship

  • To James Byer, most brilliant reader and scholar of poetry and novels I know, thanks to innate intelligence and spirit, helped along by study at UC-Chicago and Duke. One daughter, Corinna Lynette, poet and essayist herself, and scholar of Urdu/Hindi literature and language.

Family

  • South West Georga, via Germany, Ireland, England, Black HIlls of the Dakotas, Randolph County, NC, and so on.

Causes I Support

  • Any environmental causes to keep our Southern mountains and our planet from devastation.
    Conservation Trust of North Carolina
    Nature Conservancy
    ADC,com
    MercyCorps.com
    Habitat for Humanity
    Amnesty International

University Affiliation

  • None

Agents

  • None

Contact Agents

  • I have no agent.

Publishers

  • LSU Press, Texas Tech U. Press, Spring Street Press

Contact Publishers

  • You can go to the the web to find them.

Web Links