Maybe the example of Southern fiction writing has been so powerful that Southern poets have sort of keyed themselves to that.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I always had good recognition from the Southern writers, but the publishers never took any notice of that.
I've had battles with writers who live in L.A. and were writing southern characters, because they felt like if they wrote 'Sugar' and 'Honey' at the end of every sentence, that would make it southern.
Among the American contemporaries I read with most enjoyment are several North Carolinians. I think the best poetry being written these days is being written by Southerners.
Like every Southern writer, I thought that I needed to write the next 'Gone With the Wind.'
The South is full of memories and ghosts of the past. For me, it is the most inspiring place to write, from William Faulkner's haunted antebellum home to the banks of the Mississippi to the wind that whispers through the cotton fields.
It's really rare that you come across a Southern character that's not stereotyped, vilified or aggrandized.
I remember when I was growing up and watching southern people depicted on television, I thought, 'Well, based on what I'm seeing, I guess I'm supposed to be stupid and racist.' It's still, sadly, the easy route for a writer to go.
Our most famous writers are Faulkner and Eudora Welty and Flannery O'Connor. It would make sense that the poetry would reflect some of those same values, some of the same techniques.
I think we Southerners have talked a fair amount of malarkey about the mystique of being Southern.
Southern poets are still writing narrative poems, poems in forms, dramatic poems.