Blog Posts for Kathryn Stripling Byer

DO YOU KNOW POEMELEON?

Kathryn Stripling Byer — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 13:09:31 -0700

The new Poemeleon is up, one of the more interesting online poetry zines, out of California, at www.poemeleon.com. This currrent issue takes as its theme that thorny subject, Gender. The editor, Cati Porter, has done a fine job of presenting the material and Poetry Ed., Maureen Alsop, is a fascinating poet with a couple of collections to her credit. I'm delighted to have several poems ...

ARETHA'S HAT: Inauguration Day 2009

Kathryn Stripling Byer — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 13:18:02 -0700

Aretha's Hat: Inauguration Day 2009 is a unique collaboration between two poets who have been friends since meeting at a workshop with A. R. Ammons thirty-one years ago. After hearing Elizabeth Alexander's "Praise Song for the Day," on January 20, they decided to write their own Praise Songs, beginning with an American Indian inspired "sky chant." Over the next wo months ...

Passion? Let Me Clean the Dog Barf First.

Kathryn Stripling Byer — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 12:52:27 -0700

Writers are supposed to be obsessed. Obsessed with words. Images. Dreams. The brush of silky wind across their inner arms, their thighs. The last light on leaves. The pokeberries hanging from their brances out side my window, pendants ripe for the picking, beckoning to be put in a poem about late summer in the South.
But first I have to clean up the barf one of my four dogs just ...

Missteps in the Publication of My First Book

Kathryn Stripling Byer — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 09:37:07 -0700

Having been asked to respond to any missteps that might have been made with the publication of my first book, I'd begin by saying that as a poet, I find it hard for me to answer this question in great detail. THE GIRL IN THE MIDST OF THE HARVEST was an Associated Writing Programs Selection, chosen by John Frederick Nims, and published by Texas Tech University Press; we never really expected huge ...

DOES ANYONE REMEMBER TUFFY?

Kathryn Stripling Byer — Wed, 27 May 2009 11:22:00 -0700

Can anyone identify the movie in which this miraculous little dog saved the day, and just at the last minute? If you can add the stars' names, that would be most impressive. This was the first Bollywood movie I saw, and I became an addict. Thank you, Tuffy

Blue Ridge Book and Author Showcase

Kathryn Stripling Byer — Mon, 11 May 2009 07:36:30 -0700

This Saturday I attended the Blue Ridge Book & Author Showcase in Hendersonville, NC. Honorary Chairman was Robert Morgan, an old friend from my MFA days at UNCG and author of many books of poetry, fiction, and prose, among them GAP CREEK, an Oprah selection. This event reminded me yet again of how important it is to bring writers and readers together on a regular basis. Good for the ...

READING WITH DOGS

Kathryn Stripling Byer — Mon, 04 May 2009 17:37:23 -0700

What could trump reading a wonderful novel by a great novelist? Well, reading with a dog draped across your lap. Here is our Lord Byron in lapdom while my husband reads Amitov Ghosh's THE SEA OF POPPIES. He's been a huge Ghosh fan since he read SHADOWLINES. This novel is thumbs up, too. Lord Byron does not need to read any novels. He knows all he needs to know. Our old dog Arjun ...

LACE

Kathryn Stripling Byer — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 13:18:44 -0700

On this next to the last day of National Poetry Month, here's a poem by my friend Isabel Zuber, who has published a novel SALT (Picador) and several chapbooks of poetry

Craft

Move the thread
she did tied a
thousand, thousand
knots, chains, flowers
What do you
make I said
A snare Oh I
thought it was lace
She held it to her face
What do you think
lace is anyway

-- Isabel ...

PHACELIA, from "Blood Mountain," Black Shawl (LSU Press)

Kathryn Stripling Byer — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 11:15:13 -0700

Quite a few years back I began a short story from the viewpoint of a young mountain girl "taken advantage of," as we say, by one of the timber "cruisers" sent into the southern Appalachians to scout the best stand of forest to be clear-cut. As in Ron Rash's novel Serena, these timber companies brought ruthless exploitation to the mountains. The story never made its way to completion, but the ...

Not Made in America

Kathryn Stripling Byer — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 15:46:32 -0700

Yes, I've been checking the Academy of American Poets daily poems for National Poetry Month and finding them, well, lightweight. So, I've spent the rest of my reading time discovering the work of Mahmoud Darwish, Nazim Hikmet, and the 20th century Iranian poets translated and discussed in Fatemeh Keshavarz's RECITE IN THE NAME OF THE RED ROSE: Poetic Sacred Making in 2th Century Iran, and ...