Charles Wright is the only Appalachian poet to have been named our National Poet Laureate. He grew up in Oak Ridge and Kingsport, Tennessee, and taught at the University of Virginia most of his illustrious career. He is now retired and divides his time between Charlottesville and a cabin in Montana. He is humble, personable and generous. When I was editing a literary magazine, all I had to do was write him a one-line e-mail, and he would send me a poem. He could get published in the most prestigious magazines in the world, but he wanted to support our regional literature.
New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1998. 67 pages. Trade paperback.