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Nancy Simpson's LIVING ABOVE THE FROST LINE, New and Selected Poems was published by Carolina Wren Press (N.C. Laureate Series, 2010.) She is the author of ACROSS WATER and NIGHT STUDENT, State Street Press, still available on WWW at Alibris and Books Again. Her poems have been published in Southern Poetry Review, Prairie Schooner, The Georgia Review and other literary magazines. "Carolina Bluebirds" was published in THE POETS GUIDE TO THE BIRDS, Anhinga Press). "Grass" was reprinted in the 50th Anniversary Issue of Southern Poetry Review: DON'T LEAVE HUNGRY ( U.of Arkansas Press.) Seven poems were reprinted in the textbook, SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN POETRY,(McFarland.) Two poems were published in SOLO CAFE, Two more poems were published in SOLO NOVO."In the Nantahala Gorge" was published in Pisgah Review. "Studying Winter" was reprinted in Pirene's Fountain Anthology and "The Collection" in Collecting Life Anthology. Most recently, Southern Poetry Review Edited by James Smith, published "Our Great Depression," and The Southern Poetry Anthology Vol. VII: NORTH CAROLINA,Edited by William Wright, reprinted "Leaving in the Dead of Winter."

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Kathryn Kirkpatrick - STILL CELEBRATING HER LIFE AND HER POETRY

Nancy Simpson says, "Trust me. You must own, hold and read Kathryn Kirkpatrick's  new book
OUR HELD ANIMAL BREATH. Take a peek."





One Poem From
Our Held Animal Breath 
(WordTech Editions, forthcoming 2012)
First published in The Southern Review

Our Held Animal Breath

Here at the conference hotel
I keep one foot in another world.

Forget what city I’m in—
each room is a piece of unripe fruit

shipped from a factory farm.
We school in fluorescent twilight

try to be wise without windows,
open ourselves in the unopened air.

Smitten with sameness, we’re lost together,
collecting sore throats and coughs

so outside when we gather on concrete
across from the parking garage

we gasp when the rabbit appears
alone on the exit ramp

and wait to see how on earth
it lives here, between wheels and exhaust,

as if watching whatever is left
of our warm and vulnerable selves.

A leap at the last moment
into the managed green

of a flowerbed, all uniform,
unopened bulbs and we cheer

because, for the moment, escape,
survival in the common release

of our held animal breath.



Kathleen Kirkpatrick currently holds a dual appointment at Appalachian State University as a Professor in the English Department and the Sustainable Development Program. She has a Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Studies from Emory University, where she received an Academy of American Poets poetry prize.  Her poetry collections include The Body’s Horizon (1996), which was selected by Alicia Ostriker for the Brockman-Campbell award; Beyond Reason (2004), which was awarded the Roanoke-Chowan Poetry Prize by the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association; Out of the Garden (2007), which was a finalist for the Southern Independent Booksellers Association poetry award; Unaccountable Weather (2011) recently published by Press53, and Our Held Animal Breath (forthcoming in 2012).  She has held writing residencies at the Tyrone Guthrie Center in Ireland and at Norton Island off the coast of Maine.  As a literary scholar in Irish studies and the environmental humanities, she has published essays on class trauma, ecofeminist poetics, and animal studies.



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