Regional Poetry Competition

The award-winning poetry from our Western NC Regional Poetry Competition has been published to our website, along with final judge Kari Gunter-Seymour's comments on the five placed winning poems. 

The Western NC Regional Online Poetry Competition
is produced by the Caldwell Arts Council
and is brought to you through the generosity of

JUDGES' BIOS:

David B. Prather, Preliminary Judge

Preliminary judge David B. Prather of Parkersburg, West Virginia is the author of We Were Birds (Main Street Rag Publishing).  His work has appeared in several print and online journals, including Prairie Schooner, Colorado Review, Poet Lore, Seneca Review, The Literary Review, Potomac Review, South Florida Poetry Review, and many others.  He studied with Tony Hoagland, Steve Orlen, Agha Shahid Ali, and Joan Aleshire at Warren Wilson College, and has taught literature and creative writing at West Virginia University-Parkersburg and at Marietta College in Ohio.  He was the poetry editor of Confluence at Marietta College, and he hosted the Parkersburg Blennerhassett Reading Series, inviting established and emerging poets as presenters.  His work has been selected by Naomi Shihab Nye for the anthology, What Have You Lost? 

Kari Gunter-Seymour, Final Judge

Final judge Kari Gunter-Seymour is Poet Laureate of the state of Ohio. She is a ninth generation Appalachian and editor of the Women of Appalachia Project™ anthologies, "Women Speak," volumes 1-5 and "Essentially Athens Ohio," an anthology focused on landmarks, tales and experiences of those living in or deeply connected to Athens county. She holds a B.F.A. in graphic design and an M.A. in commercial photography and is a retired instructor in the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University.  Kari also is the founder/executive director of the "Women of Appalachia Project," an arts organization she created to address discrimination directed at women from the Appalachian region.

Her poetry appears in various chapbooks and several publications, including Rattle, Crab Orchard Review, Main Street Rag, Stirring, Still, CALYX and The LA Times. Her chapbook “Serving” is available from Crisis Chronicles Press. She has been nominated five times for a Pushcart Prize.

Gunter-Seymour also is an award winning photographer whose work has been published nationally in The Sun Magazine, Light Journal, Looking at Appalachia, Storm Cellar Quarterly, Anthology of Appalachian Writers, Vine Leaves Journal and Appalachian Heritage Magazine.