Writers at Home Series Continues November 20;
N.C. Poet Laureate and Cherokee Poet to Read
UNC Asheville’s Writers at Home Series continues
with readings by local authors Kathryn Stripling Byer and Debora
Kinsland Foerst at 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 20, at Malaprop’s Bookstore/Café,
55 Haywood St. Writers at Home is part of the Great Smokies Writing
Program, a consortium of Western North Carolina writers and UNC
Asheville. The event is free and open to the public.
Kathryn Stripling Byer was named Poet Laureate of North
Carolina earlier this year by Governor Mike Easley. She is the fifth
poet to assume the post, and the first woman. She succeeds Fred
Chappell, who served for five years. As Poet Laureate, Byer participates
in public events and will also write poems commemorating occasions of
historic or cultural importance.
Byer is the author of five books of poetry, most
set in the mountains of Western North Carolina. Her new collection,
“Coming to Rest,” will be released next spring from Louisiana State
University Press. She has received numerous awards, including
fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the North
Carolina Arts Council. Her second volume, “Wildwood Flower,” received
the Lamont Prize for the best second book by an American poet.
Debora Kinsland Foerst is a lifelong resident of
the Qualla Boundary, home of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. Her
poetry has appeared in the Asheville Poetry Review, Word and Witness:
100 Years of North Carolina Poetry, Lights in the Mountains and
Appalachian Heritage. Her articles have been published in local
newspapers. She teaches eighth grade language arts at Cherokee Middle
School.
For more information, call Elaine Fox, UNC
Asheville director of Extension and Distance Education, at 828/232-5122.
Media Contacts:
- Dr. Elaine Fox, UNC Asheville Director of Extension and Distance
Education, 828/232-5122
- Jill Yarnall, UNC Asheville Public Information Assistant Director,
828/251-6526
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