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978-0-910244-98-5
0-910244-98-7
$10.00 hardcover
6" x 9"
171 pages
appendix, bibliography
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First published in 1977, Contemporary
Poetry of North Carolina was a sampling of the remarkable surge of
talent and achievement of North Carolina poets during the previous
twenty years. As editors and North Carolina residents Guy Owen and Mary
C. Williams knew, good poetry creates its own landscape, but sometimes a
locale, a place, exerts a subtle influence as well.
Since World War II, North
Carolina has been steadily producing or attracting a surprising number
of good poets, each backed by a solid body of creative work. The editors
of this collection, both specialists in southern literature, found
"an unprecedented explosion of fine poetry in our state."
The sixty-three poets
represented here differ widely in style and subject matter, ranging from
Charles Eaton's elegant structure and rhymes to Jonathan Williams' rowdy
"found" poems. Charleen Swansea writes rebelliously against
woman's tradition role; other women write wittily about Dr. Johnson's
twenty-seventh cup of tea, or about joyous sensuality. Black poets,
Gerald Barrax, Lance Jeffers, and T. J. Reddy, write passionately--but
not exclusively--of black pride and anguish. The white poet John
Beecher, whose poetry has always been a battle cry against any kind of
oppression, also identifies with the anger of blacks. Poets of towering
reputation such as Randall Jarrell and A. R. Ammons share space with
talented younger poets.
Some of the common threads
the editors found in the rich diversity of themes represented here are
sensitivity to nature, a sense of place and history, the use of
colloquial speech patterns to enrich the language of poetry. Perhaps
North Carolina's most tangible contributions to the poetry explosion are
the unusual number of literary magazines, presses, and newspapers that
print and review poetry, strong state and private universities that
value and encourage creative writing, and the state of Arts Council,
which fosters poetry programs in the public schools.
North Carolina's poetry
explosion is real and "it is exciting to be a part of," the
editors concluded. The high quality and diversity of the poems they
chose for this collection bear them out. They also included short
biographies of the poets and a bibliography.
about the editors
A native of Clarkton, North Carolina, Guy Owen founded and edited Southern
Poetry Review, which he first established as Impetus while
teaching at Stetson University. He has co-edited several anthologies and
has written poetry and critical reviews. He may be best known for his
novels, The Ballad of the Flim-Flam Man and Journey for Joedel,
which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.
Mary C. Williams graduated
from Wellesley College and earned her advanced degrees from the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. This is her third
anthology, and she has also been a business manager and managing editor
of Southern Poetry Review.
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