Product Description
North Carolina is well known for its fiction writers, but the state is also home to a number of the nation's best poets. In the past few decades, these poets have produced memorable work and received numerous honors. A companion to the contemporary North Carolina fiction anthology The Rough Road Home (1992), this book provides a substantial sampling of their recent bounty.

Poet Michael McFee has chosen from eight to twenty poems by each of fifteen poets. There is a refreshing diversity in the voices, from James Applewhite's down east tobacco farmer to Gerald Barrax's passionate urban man to Kathryn Stripling Byer's isolated mountain woman. The humor ranges from Maya Angelou's serious wit to Jonathan Williams's verbal improvisations. And there is a healthy variety in form and tone, from A. R. Ammons's free verse ruminations to Fred Chappell's vigorous, witty narratives in traditional forms.

But there is also a fundamental unity to these poets. They are all North Carolina writers, who were born in or have long lived in the state, and whose verbal consciousness has been shaped by the very nature of the place. Most importantly, they are all poets we can read with appreciation and great pleasure.

contributorsBetty AdcockA. R. AmmonsMaya AngelouJames ApplewhiteGerald BarraxKathryn Stripling ByerFred ChappellWilliam HarmonSusan LudvigsonMichael McFeeHeather Ross MillerRobert MorganReynolds PriceJames SeayJonathan Williams ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A terrific anthology
This anthology could have included a lot more than fifteen poets: North Carolina is for some reason full of remarkable writers, many poets among them. But by limiting the number of authors represented, Michael McFee isable to offer us a significant profile of each.Would that moreanthologists took this approach!And this is a pretty varied crowd. There's A.R. Ammons, two-time winner of the National Book Award, and MayaAngelou, known to practically everyone after her appearance at the 1992Presidential Inauguration--and then there's little-known Jonathan Williams,whose whimsical, often outrageous poems have usually been published bysmall presses.There's Robert Morgan, who writes of Appalachian life, andJames Applewhite, who writes about the tobacco country down east.Some ofthese writers, such as Angelou, James Seay, and Betty Adcock, grew up inother parts of the South, and virtually all of them have traveled widely;despite its subtitle, this collection is anything but provincial.It's amust-have for those interested in North Carolina writing, but anyone whoappreciates good poetry will enjoy this book. ... Read more