“It’s especially meaningful to me to have the work recognized by our state’s oldest civic organization and to be in the company of so many fine North Carolina poets.”

Dr. Kathryn Kirkpatrick on her poetry collection “The Fisher Queen,” winner of the 2019 Roanoke-Chowan Award for Poetry.

BOONE, N.C. — The North Carolina Literary and Historical Association (NCLHA) has recognized Dr. Kathryn Kirkpatrick, professor in the Department of English at Appalachian State University, with the 2019 Roanoke-Chowan Award for Poetry for her newest collection — “The Fisher Queen: New & Selected Poems,” published by Salmon Poetry in March.

The award, conferred each year since 1953, recognizes one North Carolina poet for the best book of poetry.

“This is a volume that brings together new poems with selected poems from over two decades of writing, so it’s especially meaningful to me to have the work recognized by our state’s oldest civic organization and to be in the company of so many fine North Carolina poets,” Kirkpatrick said.

The book draws on poems from six award-winning collections by Kirkpatrick. Poems in “The Fisher Queen” explore the multiple exiles of living in a woman’s body — traversing boundaries of region, nation and class and confronting human violations of the natural world.

Kirkpatrick holds a Ph.D. from Emory University, where she received an Academy of American Poets poetry prize. Three of her poetry collections have won the North Carolina Poetry Society’s Brockman-Campbell Award and another was a finalist for the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA) poetry award. Kirkpatrick also received the Roanoke-Chowan Award for Poetry in 2004 for her collection “Beyond Reason.”

The NCLHA is the state’s oldest civic organization. Past winners of the Roanoke-Chowan Award for Poetry have included Fred Chappell, James Applewhite, Reynolds Price, Kathryn Stripling Byer, Alan Michael Parker, Joseph Mills, Shelby Stephenson, Patricia Hooper and Heather Ross Miller. Also among the award winners is Joseph Bathanti, the McFarlane Family Distinguished Professor in Interdisciplinary Education at Appalachian and the state’s seventh poet laureate (2012–14).

“I was delighted to discover that this is the second time Kathryn has won this prestigious award. The fact that she first won it 15 years ago attests to the strength of her trajectory as a poet,” said Dr. Leonardo Flores, professor in and chair of the Department of English.

“It is also gratifying to see that both she and Joseph Bathanti have brought prestige to our department and creative writing program by winning this award, each multiple times. Students should be aware of the quality of our faculty, who are recognized with competitive awards such as this one,” Flores added.

“The Fisher Queen” is available for purchase in the University Bookstore. To learn more about Kirkpatrick and her work, visit kathrynkirkpatrick.org.

The Fisher Queen

New & Selected Poems
By Kathryn Kirkpatrick
2019

Drawing together poems from six award-winning collections, Kathryn Kirkpatrick introduces the best of her poetry with the voice of the Fisher Queen, the otherworldly spouse of the mythic Fisher King. Hers is a story of wounding, equal to her husband’s, and just as connected to a wasteland, figured here as 20th and 21st century environmental devastation. These poems explore the multiple exiles of living in a woman’s body; traversing boundaries of region, nation, and class; and confronting human violations of the natural world. Moving between the quotidian and the mythic, Kirkpatrick’s multi-voiced lyrics constitute a powerful quest.

Available from Salmon Poetry

What do you think?

Share your feedback on this story.

About the Department of English

The Department of English at Appalachian State University is committed to outstanding work in the classroom, the support and mentorship of students, and a dynamic engagement with culture, history, language, theory and literature. The department offers master’s degrees in English and rhetoric and composition, as well as undergraduate degrees in literary studies, film studies, creative writing, professional writing and English education. Learn more at https://english.appstate.edu.

About the College of Arts and Sciences

The College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) at Appalachian State University is home to 17 academic departments, two centers and one residential college. These units span the humanities and the social, mathematical and natural sciences. CAS aims to develop a distinctive identity built upon our university's strengths, traditions and locations. The college’s values lie not only in service to the university and local community, but through inspiring, training, educating and sustaining the development of its students as global citizens. More than 6,800 student majors are enrolled in the college. As the college is also largely responsible for implementing App State’s general education curriculum, it is heavily involved in the education of all students at the university, including those pursuing majors in other colleges. Learn more at https://cas.appstate.edu.

About Appalachian State University

As a premier public institution, Appalachian State University prepares students to lead purposeful lives. App State is one of 17 campuses in the University of North Carolina System, with a national reputation for innovative teaching and opening access to a high-quality, cost-effective education. The university enrolls more than 21,000 students, has a low student-to-faculty ratio and offers more than 150 undergraduate and 80 graduate majors at its Boone and Hickory campuses and through App State Online. Learn more at https://www.appstate.edu.