Are Catherine Carter's poems oddball?

 The late poet Thomas Lux once called Catherine Carter’s poems “oddball”.

He wasn’t exactly wrong. And the sticker on her office door that reads, “I like poetry, long walks on the beach, and poking dead things with a stick” isn’t entirely a joke.   

Sign on Catherine’s office door

Catherine’s parents are a master gardener and an estuarine biologist, so she’s spent a lot of time poking dead things with sticks.  Her poems’ subjects include buzzards (the family totem), water-witching, an unexpected appearance by the Greek goddess Artemis to Appalachia, and an ode to the humble anus. 

That’s because Catherine’s writing tries to illuminate the immanence of what’s right in front of us all the time, especially in nonhuman nature.  Things don’t have to conform to human standards of prettiness or align with human values to be sacred, or to be marvelous.  That’s one reason the collection she’s currently completing, By Stone and Needle, centers around the figure of the witch. 

It’s a way to explore how the ideas of witchcraft and monstrosity are used to subdue women. It opens up some of the ways that women remain and become themselves in the fires of menopause. And it connects both of these to the burning of the earth in an era of accelerating global warming. While that may sound depressing, these are in fact poems of often fierce praise and rejoicing in the marvels all around us here and now. They’re poems of joy even in an era of profound injustice and ecological collapse. The poems locate hope in resistance and in praise.

These days, Catherine is a professor of English at Western Carolina University.  She lives with her husband Brian Gastle in Cullowhee, NC.  

On a good day, she can roll a whitewater kayak and re-queen a beehive.  On less good days, though, she collects stings, rock-rash, and multiple contusions.  She has served for the past six years as the Jackson County representative of NCWN-West where she has supported and encouraged writers and poets.

 By Stone and Needle, if her editors accept it, may arrive in fall 2025.  Catherine’s prior collections of poetry with LSU Press include The Memory of Gills (2006) The Swamp Monster at Home (2012), and Larvae of the Nearest Stars (2019); she has one chapbook with Jacar Press, Marks of the Witch.  

Catherine offers a variety of workshops and topics on both writing and teaching poetry, and she welcomes the opportunity to meet with students and adult writers. Visit her website to learn more.

"If you’re looking for someone to read at an event or bookstore, or participate in a literary festival, or run workshops at a retreat or writer’s event, please feel free to contact me," she says. "I can assure you that I respect the need for a poet to not only edify but entertain an audience."

 An Award-Winning Poet

Catherine Carter's poetry has won the North Carolina Literary Review’s James Applewhite Prize, the North Carolina Literary and Historical Society’s Roanoke-Chowan Award, Jacar Press’ chapbook contest; it has also appeared in Orion, Poetry, Ecotone, RHINO, North American Review, Poetry South, Southern Humanities Review, Poetry South, Tar River Poetry, and Ploughshares, among others.

Books

You can purchase Catherine's books through your favorite independent bookstores. They are usually available at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva, NC, which will also ship books to customers if you call and order them (828) 586-9499); and through LSU Press at https://lsupress.org/authors/detail/catherine-w-carter/

 

Catherine will be the featured guest for Coffee with the Poets and Writers, Moss Memorial Library, in Hayesville, NC on August 10, 10:30 AM. The meeting is open to the public.