The North Carolina Writers' Network and NC Writers' Network-West are honoring Kathryn Stripling Byer this Sunday.
Read more here.
Showing posts with label Kathryn Stripling Byer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kathryn Stripling Byer. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 26, 2017
Tuesday, June 6, 2017
Kathryn Stripling Byer, poet, a friend to many, an activist and advocate
In honor of Kathryn Stripling Byer, first woman Poet Laureate of North Carolina, 2005 - 2009, who passed away today from cancer
I met Kathryn in 1998 at the John C. Campbell Folk School and bought her poetry book, In the Midst of the Harvest, one of my very favorites.
We had a connection even before we met. She and I grew up about 30 miles from each other in SW Georgia. Her memories of the farm where she lived often find their way into her early poems. They take me right back to my childhood.
I was fortunate enough to take a few classes with Kathryn, who became a friend, and she was generous to help me with my poetry. She wrote a nice blurb for my chapbook, Now Might as Well be Then. She featured me on her blog where she posted several of my poems.
In 2014 she and I worked on a writing conference held in Sylva, NC at the Jackson County Library. She would never take any payment for what she did for NCWN-West which she was instrumental in bringing to fruition.
On May 6, 2017, she taught a two hour workshop for our one day conference, A Day for Writers. She was frail from the chemo treatments, but she insisted she could do it and she did. Her evaluations were outstanding with most just wishing it had been longer.
She said she was glad she did it and even talked about the next time she taught this class. I was concerned about her health, but she seemed to feel she was going to be fine. Doctors often hide the hard truths, I think.
I admired her for her forthrightness and down to earth personality. She never let ego interfere with her relationships with writers and was quick to compliment others. She offered a helping hand to any poet who was serious about their work. Although family was of utmost importance to her, she attended writing events all over the country and in other countries as well.
Her poems have been put to music in a number of ways. You can see them on YouTube.
She was not afraid to speak out about injustice and had definite opinions about government and those in power. She was an advocate for our environment, civil rights for all, and for peace. She was an influencer who was respected by writers and non-writers. She wrote letters to those in congress and made her voice heard on issues about which she was passionate. She did her research and I, like many who followed her, knew we could count on her when she spoke or posted online.
I am in awe when I realize I was friends with such an important and good person, one who has touched so many lives in one way or another, and I just took it for granted. If I sent her an email, she would answer promptly. I knew Kay was one who would do all she could for our writers and even for a stranger who was in need.
We will never know what all she did for NCWN-West as she helped members and the organization stay afloat in the early days. If she had a friend who needed help getting a book published, and a book that Kay felt was worthy, she would not rest until that book was accepted by a publisher.
I believe the poetry of Kathryn Stripling Byer will be lasting, and she will be known by generations to come. Hers was a voice stilled too soon. I am sad for myself and for her family and I am sad for those who will never have the opportunity to know her.
The Still Here and Now
This fragrance I’ve never been able to name,
floating past on the skin of an eighteen year old,
still invites me to stand on the loggia again,
afternoon ticking down into dark,
asking What am I doing here?
lost among strangers with hair more
bouffant than mine, clothing more stylish.
I met Kathryn in 1998 at the John C. Campbell Folk School and bought her poetry book, In the Midst of the Harvest, one of my very favorites.
We had a connection even before we met. She and I grew up about 30 miles from each other in SW Georgia. Her memories of the farm where she lived often find their way into her early poems. They take me right back to my childhood.
I was fortunate enough to take a few classes with Kathryn, who became a friend, and she was generous to help me with my poetry. She wrote a nice blurb for my chapbook, Now Might as Well be Then. She featured me on her blog where she posted several of my poems.
In 2014 she and I worked on a writing conference held in Sylva, NC at the Jackson County Library. She would never take any payment for what she did for NCWN-West which she was instrumental in bringing to fruition.
On May 6, 2017, she taught a two hour workshop for our one day conference, A Day for Writers. She was frail from the chemo treatments, but she insisted she could do it and she did. Her evaluations were outstanding with most just wishing it had been longer.
She said she was glad she did it and even talked about the next time she taught this class. I was concerned about her health, but she seemed to feel she was going to be fine. Doctors often hide the hard truths, I think.
I admired her for her forthrightness and down to earth personality. She never let ego interfere with her relationships with writers and was quick to compliment others. She offered a helping hand to any poet who was serious about their work. Although family was of utmost importance to her, she attended writing events all over the country and in other countries as well.
Her poems have been put to music in a number of ways. You can see them on YouTube.
She was not afraid to speak out about injustice and had definite opinions about government and those in power. She was an advocate for our environment, civil rights for all, and for peace. She was an influencer who was respected by writers and non-writers. She wrote letters to those in congress and made her voice heard on issues about which she was passionate. She did her research and I, like many who followed her, knew we could count on her when she spoke or posted online.
I am in awe when I realize I was friends with such an important and good person, one who has touched so many lives in one way or another, and I just took it for granted. If I sent her an email, she would answer promptly. I knew Kay was one who would do all she could for our writers and even for a stranger who was in need.
We will never know what all she did for NCWN-West as she helped members and the organization stay afloat in the early days. If she had a friend who needed help getting a book published, and a book that Kay felt was worthy, she would not rest until that book was accepted by a publisher.
I believe the poetry of Kathryn Stripling Byer will be lasting, and she will be known by generations to come. Hers was a voice stilled too soon. I am sad for myself and for her family and I am sad for those who will never have the opportunity to know her.
The Still Here and Now
For Ruth
Wesleyan College, 11/6/04
This fragrance I’ve never been able to name,
floating past on the skin of an eighteen year old,
still invites me to stand on the loggia again,
afternoon ticking down into dark,
asking What am I doing here?
lost among strangers with hair more
bouffant than mine, clothing more stylish.
Soon I’d learn the words for what I couldn’t find
in my closet: Bass weejuns, madras, and Villager.
As for the name of that scent mingling
now with aroma of barbecue served on the porch,
it would have to be French, I imagined,
Ma Griffe, L’air du Temps, Insouciance,
not my mother’s stale Emeraude clinging to me
from our goodbye embraces. Now dusk would be
shrouding my father’s farm, doves mourning
out in the empty fields. I knew my way back
to all that. Don’t think for a moment I didn’t
in my closet: Bass weejuns, madras, and Villager.
As for the name of that scent mingling
now with aroma of barbecue served on the porch,
it would have to be French, I imagined,
Ma Griffe, L’air du Temps, Insouciance,
not my mother’s stale Emeraude clinging to me
from our goodbye embraces. Now dusk would be
shrouding my father’s farm, doves mourning
out in the empty fields. I knew my way back
to all that. Don’t think for a moment I didn’t
wish I had the courage to set out for home.
But just then the sun set. The lamps bloomed
like story book tulips. The campus unfolded
around me its labyrinth that like a medieval pilgrim
I’d walk until I reached the center where I’d find
no Rose Window as I saw later at Chartres
sifting light down upon us, but tall classroom windows
that shook when the Rivoli train passed. I still walk
those pathways at night, dreaming arias spiraling
forth from the practice rooms, each dorm a beehive
of desk lamps and phones ringing endlessly.
But just then the sun set. The lamps bloomed
like story book tulips. The campus unfolded
around me its labyrinth that like a medieval pilgrim
I’d walk until I reached the center where I’d find
no Rose Window as I saw later at Chartres
sifting light down upon us, but tall classroom windows
that shook when the Rivoli train passed. I still walk
those pathways at night, dreaming arias spiraling
forth from the practice rooms, each dorm a beehive
of desk lamps and phones ringing endlessly.
Time, say some physicists, does not exist.
Sheer Illusion. Each moment a still frame,
as though in a movie reel unspooling out to the edge
of the universe. Each now forever.
So let my first afternoon darken to first night.
Inside a small room overlooking a golf course
and woodland, a small bed waits,
heaped with my unpacked belongings.
I slowly walk toward it, my nostrils still seeking
a fragrance I now name Siempre because
the next day I sit down to learn Spanish,
not French. In my best cursive
I write my name on each blank sheet I’m given.
The ginkgo trees flutter their luminous handkerchiefs:
Buenos Dias, Bonjour, Wilkommen.
Sheer Illusion. Each moment a still frame,
as though in a movie reel unspooling out to the edge
of the universe. Each now forever.
So let my first afternoon darken to first night.
Inside a small room overlooking a golf course
and woodland, a small bed waits,
heaped with my unpacked belongings.
I slowly walk toward it, my nostrils still seeking
a fragrance I now name Siempre because
the next day I sit down to learn Spanish,
not French. In my best cursive
I write my name on each blank sheet I’m given.
The ginkgo trees flutter their luminous handkerchiefs:
Buenos Dias, Bonjour, Wilkommen.
Again and again I come back
to the start of this journey. I stand looking down
at the fountain, as if to say Here I am.
There you are, water sings to our gathering voices.
The loggia is filling with girls wanting supper,
and now she whose fragrance awakened my senses
so many years back brushes by and the wake
of her passage still trembles around me.
to the start of this journey. I stand looking down
at the fountain, as if to say Here I am.
There you are, water sings to our gathering voices.
The loggia is filling with girls wanting supper,
and now she whose fragrance awakened my senses
so many years back brushes by and the wake
of her passage still trembles around me.
Friday, October 25, 2013
Kathryn Stripling Byer - The Girl in the Midst of the Harvest from Press 53
 |
| Kathryn Stripling Byer |
How wonderful that all the fans of Kathryn Stripling Byer, first woman poet laureate of North Carolina, can now buy The Girl in the Midst of the Harvest from Press 53. This is the second edition of the award-winning book that was first printed in 1986. I'm not bragging, but I have an autographed copy of that first edition.
Kathryn and I share a similar background having both grown up on farms in south Georgia. Her poems speak to me as if she were my sister, and I'm sure they will speak to you when you get your copy of this book.
Kathryn Byer has become one of the most important women in the literary world of western North Carolina, and a beloved poet throughout the country and in foreign countries as well.
Click on this link to see more about this book and the poet.
 |
| 2005 NCWN Fall Conference, from left, me, Janice Moore, Nancy Simpson, Shirley Uphouse and Kathryn Byer |
Wednesday, September 11, 2013
"his most intimate book yet, his voice tender, full of longing and anticipation" Byer says about Eye of the Beholder
As I set up our schedule for 2014, I hope to have Scott Owens back with us.
His classes are extremely popular and one of the reasons is because he is one of the most generous writers I know. Beginning poets are not discouraged, but receive gentle notes with suggestions as to how to improve their work. He is personable and approachable. I have met some of our highly touted editors of literary journals who will hardly talk to lesser known poets, but not Scott. I am happy he is a regular on our faculty.
His poetry touches us in various ways.
Here
is what former NC Poet Laureate Kathryn Stripling Byer says about Eye of the
Beholder:
"The
eye in Scott Owens' "Eye of the Beholder" is the passionate "I" of the poet,
watching every turn and gesture of the beloved and speaking from it, sounding
the lineaments of desire in each poem and pulling the reader into its embrace.
Over the years, Owens has ranged widely in subject matter and style. This is his
most intimate book yet, his voice tender, full of longing and anticipation. He
beholds what he loves, whether woman, blossom, or falling leaf, all of it
gathered up in the world's body, the ultimate beloved, after all, that he
renders in finely tuned lyrics."
|
Friday, May 17, 2013
WNC resident Kathryn Stripling Byer is elected to the NCWN Board of Trustees
NCWN West member Kathryn Stripling Byer has been elected to the Board of Trustees of the North Carolina Writers' Network along with a writer from the far eastern part of the state and one from the Raleigh area. Read more here.
Monday, May 6, 2013
NCWN's Squire Summer Writing Residency July 11-14 in Western NC
2013 Squire Summer Writing Residency
will be July 11–14 on the campus of Western Carolina University in
Cullowhee.
The
Squire Summer Writing Residency is the Network’s smallest and most intensive
conference. Admission is limited to the first fifty registrants who sign up for
one of three three-day workshops:
- Poetry with Kathryn
Stripling Byer, North Carolina’s first woman Poet Laureate. Byer has
published six full-length collections of poetry, including Descent
(LSU Press, 2012), her most recent. A re-print of her first, the AWP
Award-winning The Girl in the Midst of the Harvest, is forthcoming
from Press 53. Her work has appeared in many journals and newspapers,
including The Atlantic, Hudson Review, Boston Globe,
and Georgia Review.
- Fiction with
Elizabeth Lutyens. Lutyens returned to her native North Carolina after a
career in the Boston area as a journalist in print and television. Her
novel-in-progress, Medicine Island, was a semi-finalist in the 2011
William Faulkner – Wisdom Competition. A faculty member of the Great
Smokies Writing Program at UNC Asheville since 2006, she currently teaches
its by-invitation Prose Master Class and is editor-in-chief of its online
literary magazine, The Great Smokies Review.
- Creative
Nonfiction with Catherine Reid. Reid is the author of Coyote:
Seeking the Hunter in Our Midst (Houghton Mifflin) and Falling into
Place (forthcoming from Beacon Press); she has also edited two
anthologies and served as editor of nonfiction for a literary journal. Her
essays have appeared in such journals as Georgia Review, Massachusetts
Review, Fourth Genre, and Bellevue Literary Review. She
is currently the director of creative writing at Warren Wilson College,
where she specializes in literary nonfiction and environmental writing.
The
Residency will begin on Thursday evening, July 11, with registration and
check-in. Workshops begin on Friday morning, July 12, and continue until the
early afternoon of July 14. The Residency will also feature panel discussions
and readings by faculty and attendees.
Registrants
also will enjoy meals together and have the option of staying overnight in
on-campus accommodations.
“The
small class sizes and extended, intensive format of the Squire Summer Writing
Residency makes it especially safe for writers to share their work, get to know
other writers, and find inspiration,” NCWN executive director Ed Southern said.
Registration
is available online at www.ncwriters.org or by
calling 336-293-8844.
The nonprofit North Carolina Writers’ Network is the state’s oldest and largest literary arts services organization devoted to writers at all stages of development. For additional information, visit www.ncwriters.org.
The nonprofit North Carolina Writers’ Network is the state’s oldest and largest literary arts services organization devoted to writers at all stages of development. For additional information, visit www.ncwriters.org.
Thursday, November 8, 2012
An Anniversary of Verse NC Poetry Society Celebrates 80th Year with Statewide Readings
2012 marks the 80th year of the North Carolina Poetry Society,
and the Society and its friends and members are celebrating that anniversary
with a series of readings across the state organized by and featuring NC's most
prestigious poets.
It all begins with the state's current Poet Laureate, Joseph Bathanti, on November 29. The reading and Open Mic to be held at 3:30 at the Scholars Bookshop (Appalachian State's university bookstore) will include ASU professors and poets Hilda Downer and Lynn Doyle.
Six other readings will be held on December 1.
In Charlotte, Myers Park Baptist Church will host organizer Tony Abbott, Morri Creech, Annalee Kwochka, Alan Michael Parker, Dannye Romine Powell, David Radavich, and Lisa Zerkle at 2:00.
The Regulator Bookshop in Durham will feature readings by Betty Adcock, Noel Crook, and Marylin Hervieux also at 2:00.
Former state Poet Laureate, Kay Byer will host Kathryn Kirkpatrick, Joe Mills, and Julie Suk at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva at 3:00.
Another former state Poet Laureate, Fred Chappell, will be featured along with Malaika King Albrecht, Terry Kennedy, Val Nieman, and John Thomas York at the Community Arts Café in Winston-Salem at 2:00.
Peter Makuck and Mark Cox will read at St. Francis by the Sea in Salter Path at 4:00.
And Shelby Stephenson, Alex Albright, Marty Silverthorne, and Jim Clark will participate in a marathon reading from 9:00 AM to 3:15 PM at the R.A. Fountain General Store in Fountain.
All events are free and open to the public. For more information, visit the NC Poetry Society website at www.ncpoetrysociety.org
Thanks to Scott Owens for the above post. The bold and red text is my own.
--
Posted By Blogger to Musings at 11/08/2012 09:11:00 PM
It all begins with the state's current Poet Laureate, Joseph Bathanti, on November 29. The reading and Open Mic to be held at 3:30 at the Scholars Bookshop (Appalachian State's university bookstore) will include ASU professors and poets Hilda Downer and Lynn Doyle.
Six other readings will be held on December 1.
In Charlotte, Myers Park Baptist Church will host organizer Tony Abbott, Morri Creech, Annalee Kwochka, Alan Michael Parker, Dannye Romine Powell, David Radavich, and Lisa Zerkle at 2:00.
The Regulator Bookshop in Durham will feature readings by Betty Adcock, Noel Crook, and Marylin Hervieux also at 2:00.
Former state Poet Laureate, Kay Byer will host Kathryn Kirkpatrick, Joe Mills, and Julie Suk at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva at 3:00.
Another former state Poet Laureate, Fred Chappell, will be featured along with Malaika King Albrecht, Terry Kennedy, Val Nieman, and John Thomas York at the Community Arts Café in Winston-Salem at 2:00.
Peter Makuck and Mark Cox will read at St. Francis by the Sea in Salter Path at 4:00.
And Shelby Stephenson, Alex Albright, Marty Silverthorne, and Jim Clark will participate in a marathon reading from 9:00 AM to 3:15 PM at the R.A. Fountain General Store in Fountain.
All events are free and open to the public. For more information, visit the NC Poetry Society website at www.ncpoetrysociety.org
Thanks to Scott Owens for the above post. The bold and red text is my own.
--
Posted By Blogger to Musings at 11/08/2012 09:11:00 PM
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Do You Know Ted Kooser?
One of my favorite poets is Ted Kooser, a former poet Laureate of the United States. He recently published on his site a poem by former NC poet Laureate , Kathryn Stripling Byer.
Click here and read Byer's poem.
This is great! Two of my favorite modern poets together.
Click here and read Byer's poem.
This is great! Two of my favorite modern poets together.
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