The Language They Speak Is Things to Eat: Poems By Fifteen Contemporary North Carolina Poets [Hardcover]

Michael McFee (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 18, 1994

North Carolina is well known for its fiction writers, but the state is also home to a number of the nation's best poets. In the past few decades, these poets have produced memorable work and received numerous honors. A companion to the contemporary North Carolina fiction anthology The Rough Road Home (1992), this book provides a substantial sampling of their recent bounty.

Poet Michael McFee has chosen from eight to twenty poems by each of fifteen poets. There is a refreshing diversity in the voices, from James Applewhite's down east tobacco farmer to Gerald Barrax's passionate urban man to Kathryn Stripling Byer's isolated mountain woman. The humor ranges from Maya Angelou's serious wit to Jonathan Williams's verbal improvisations. And there is a healthy variety in form and tone, from A. R. Ammons's free verse ruminations to Fred Chappell's vigorous, witty narratives in traditional forms.

But there is also a fundamental unity to these poets. They are all North Carolina writers, who were born in or have long lived in the state, and whose verbal consciousness has been shaped by the very nature of the place. Most importantly, they are all poets we can read with appreciation and great pleasure.

contributors Betty Adcock A. R. Ammons Maya Angelou James Applewhite Gerald Barrax Kathryn Stripling Byer Fred Chappell William Harmon Susan Ludvigson Michael McFee Heather Ross Miller Robert Morgan Reynolds Price James Seay Jonathan Williams

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

As McFee observes in the introduction, most anthologies tend to favor variety rather than depth-"bouquets rather than whole fields of flowers." By selecting the work of only 15 contemporary North Carolina poets, however, he offers an ample sampling of each poet's work, to give a "satisfying sense of a poet's full flavor." Not surprisingly, part of that "flavor" is North Carolina itself-its history, people, food and language. Here are the richly textured blues-poems of Maya Angelou and the lyrical, wonderfully colloquial work of Fred Chappell. Here too is the wryly passionate poetry of Kathryn Stripling Byer, whose voice draws its powerful sense of place from the Blue Ridge Mountains. Perhaps the most tenuous inclusion is A.R. Ammons-a poet who, though originally from North Carolina, has spent the last 30 years in Ithaca, N.Y., and whose poems offer only a slight resonance of anything "regional," much less North Carolinan. Work by James Applewhite, on the other hand, is North Carolinian right down to the tobacco leaf. Evocations of rural tobacco farming appear in his poems with a lyricism as surprising as it is Southern. So while uneven, this "bouquet" has a delightful aroma-varied, and pungent with a sense of place.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

Editor Michael McFee, working with the University of North Carolina Press, has done an admirable job.

Southern Humanities Review

Cheers to Michael McFee and the University of North Carolina Press for letting these voices be heard.

Raleigh News and Observer

This is a wonderful collection of many years of serious work.

North Carolina Libraries

The poems McFee has chosen . . . begin immediately to yield delight that increases upon further reflection and study.

Georgia Review

This 'bouquet' has a delightful aroma—varied, and pungent with a sense of place.

Publishers Weekly

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 296 pages
• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press (November 18, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807821721
• ISBN-13: 978-0807821725
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,555,390 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A terrific anthology, June 17, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Language They Speak Is Things to Eat: Poems By Fifteen Contemporary North Carolina Poets (Paperback)

This anthology could have included a lot more than fifteen poets: North Carolina is for some reason full of remarkable writers, many poets among them. But by limiting the number of authors represented, Michael McFee is able to offer us a significant profile of each. Would that more anthologists took this approach! And this is a pretty varied crowd. There's A.R. Ammons, two-time winner of the National Book Award, and Maya Angelou, known to practically everyone after her appearance at the 1992 Presidential Inauguration--and then there's little-known Jonathan Williams, whose whimsical, often outrageous poems have usually been published by small presses. There's Robert Morgan, who writes of Appalachian life, and James Applewhite, who writes about the tobacco country down east. Some of these writers, such as Angelou, James Seay, and Betty Adcock, grew up in other parts of the South, and virtually all of them have traveled widely; despite its subtitle, this collection is anything but provincial. It's a must-have for those interested in North Carolina writing, but anyone who appreciates good poetry will enjoy this book.