Kathryn Stripling Byer
Kathryn Stripling Byer has published six books of poetry, including The Girl in the Midst of the Harvest (Texas Tech U. Press, AWP Award Series, 1986), Wildwood Flower (LSU, 1992) and Descent (LSU, 2012). Her poetry, fiction and essays have appeared in newspapers and journals ranging from Atlantic Monthly to Appalachian Heritage. She was the 2007 recipient of the Hanes Award in Poetry from the Fellowship of Southern Writers and has served as North Carolina's Poet Laureate. Her most recent collection is Descent (LSU, 2012). She lives in Cullowhee, N. C., surrounded by the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Reading List
Pretty
the world I saw after he pulled me up onto the saddle so pretty I whispered into his backbone, the taste of his sweat through the rough of his shirt, on my tongue pretty snatches of lovesong and doe-si-do, as …
Silky
Such a story she told me, already beyond the listening age, ready to walk by myself to the river and dream I was a rainbow trout rippling. Ripplefish, I call them. ridding the depths of all danger, for how could …
Her Messengers
Now that fields have been stubbled, roadsides hacked into winter submission, mountainside blasted to rubble for high rise and parking lot, I hear them trawling the forest for migrating warblers, mobbing the trespassing hawks. When my neighbor downhill aims his …
Cousins
We used to steal roses. Not to mention the usual zinnias and batchelor buttons. We stashed them in woodpecker holes, arranged them in cowpies. Dinner’s served, we announced to the cud-chewers. The old women scolded us. No blossoms left for …
Home Economics
circa 1960 Now girls, look carefully at your embroidery stitches. Blind stitch or hem stitch. Back stitch or chain stitch. Don’t forget whip stitch. And French Knots. A good stitch reveals a wife’s character. But what if I did not …