The Southern Poetry Anthology, Volume I: South Carolina Book

The Southern Poetry Anthology Volume I: South Carolina is the first in a series of poetry anthologies that will focus on contemporary poetry of the American South, region by region. In this inaugural collection, editors William Wright and Stephen Gardner have collected and compiled the work of seventy-six poets who claim—or have claimed sometime in their life—South Carolina as home and as a palpable influence on their work.

"The Southern Poetry Anthology Volume I: South Carolina includes seventy-six contemporary poets with original, energetic and unmistakable voices who have called the Palmetto state home. Shadowed and illumined by South Carolina's complex and rich heritage dating from 1514, when Spaniards explored the state's coast, this collection will enrich contemporary American life because selections reflect the multifaceted character of the state that has played a major role in events that have shaped our nation."—Vivian Shipley

"For anyone who thinks that poetry stopped in South Carolina after Henry Timrod and Paul Hamilton Hayne or, for that matter, even James Dickey, this generous and well-selected anthology of poems by poets who were born or lived in that state will prove to be a real eye-opener. These pages are full of those quiet recognitions, startling surprises, and sudden revelations of truth that only the best poetry can provide. I read it with the same kind of excitement that a good novel can provide, and I urge it upon all those readers who need to know (or who already know) that poetry is alive and well and flourishing in the Palmetto State."—R. H. W. Dillard