Joyce Compton-Brown enjoyed a long career teaching literature and writing at Gardner-Webb University where she inspired many who have gone on to distinguished careers in that field, perhaps most notably Ron Rash. A few years ago she retired back to the higher North Carolina mountains where she and her husband, Les Brown, both grew up. This is her first poetry collection, following a chapbook. “Joyce Compton Brown’s wonderful new collection of poems could literally have been sung into being, filled with homespun eloquence and wisdom and all kinds of mountain music . . . Visual, melodic, character-driven, Joyce Brown’s extraordinary poems literally leap off the page. – Lee Smith. Music abound in Joyce Compton Brown’s Singing with Jarred Edges . . . Brown has succeeded admirably in her quest of “calling forth a living past, / giving strength for the present, / making bearable all thought / of the future.” – Jim Clark. Joyce Brown’s poetry is like the best bluegrass music; there is a strong sense of longing and loss, yet what is passing or past is honored through her artistry and makes what otherwise might be forgotten unforgettable. Singing with Jarred Edges is an exceptional book of poems.” – Ron Rash.
Charlotte, North Carolina: Main Street Rag Publishing Company, 2018. 49 pages. Trade paperback