Kay Byer

Kathryn Stripling Byer (November 25, 1944 – June 5, 2017), also called Kay Byer, was an American poet and teacher. She was named by Governor Mike Easley as the fifth North Carolina Poet Laureate from 2005 to 2009. She was the first woman to hold the position.

Early life and education
Kathryn Stripling was born in Camilla, Georgia in 1944. Her parents were C.M. Stripling, a farmer, and his wife, Bernice (née Campbell) Stripling.

She went on to graduate with a bachelors in English from Macon, Georgia's Wesleyan College and then received her M.F.A. from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where she studied under Allen Tate, Fred Chappell, and Robert W. Watson. During this time at UNC-G, Byer decided to move to the mountains of North Carolina.

Career
After receiving her M.F.A., Byer became poet-in-residence at Western Carolina University, 1988–98, as well as UNC-G in 1995 and Lenoir-Rhyne College in 1999. She has published six full collections of poetry as well as some chapbooks. Descent was published in 2012 by Louisiana State University Press. In 2015 The Vishnu Bird was published by Jacar Press.

Poet laureateship
In 2005, North Carolina Governor Michael Easley appointed Byer to be the state's fifth poet laureate following Fred Chappell whose term ended in 2002. She was the first woman to hold the position.

As part of her outreach program during her term as poet laureate, Byer maintained "My Laureate's Lasso", a blog that focused on North Carolina poets and poetry. She was also the judge for the North Carolina Poetry Society's Poet Laureate Award. In 2008, Byer named Katherine Indermaur as the first North Carolina Student Poet Laureate.

Personal life
Kathryn Stripling married Western Carolina University professor Jim Byer. They had one daughter and last lived in Cullowhee, North Carolina.

Death
Kathryn Stripling Byer died at the age of 72 in Cullowhee on June 5, 2017, from lymphoma.

Works
Some of Byer's poetry appeared in, among other periodicals, The Carolina Quarterly, The Georgia Review, The Hudson Review, The Iowa Review, Poetry, and The Southern Review. Her work often dealt with lives and hardships of western North Carolina mountain inhabitants, especially women, in earlier generations.

Books
Byer's books include:
 * The Girl in the Midst of the Harvest (1986), Associated Writing Programs award series
 * Wildwood Flower (1992)
 * Black Shawl (1998)
 * Catching Light (Louisiana State University Press, 2002)
 * Wake (chapbook, 2003)
 * Coming to Rest (Louisiana State University Press, 2006)
 * The Movable Nest: A Mother/Daughter Companion as co-editor with Kallet, Marilyn (Helicon Nine Editions, 2007)
 * Southern Fictions (sonnet chapbook; Jacar Press, 2011)
 * Descent (Louisiana State University Press, 2012)
 * The Vishnu Bird (Jacar Press, 2015)

Essays
Some of Byer's most notable essays include:
 * "Turning the Windlass at the Well: Fred Chappell's Early Poetry" in Dream Garden: The Poetic Vision of Fred Chappell (1997)
 * "Deep Water" in Bloodroot: Reflections on Place by Appalachian Women Writers (1998)

Awards and honors

 * 1992 – Lamont Poetry Selection of the Academy of American Poets
 * 1998 – Roanoke-Chowan Award for Poetry
 * 2001 – Emory and Henry College's Kathryn Stripling Byer Literary Festival
 * 2001 – North Carolina Award in Literature
 * 2003 – SIBA Book Award in Poetry for Catching Light
 * 2005–2009 – North Carolina Poet Laureate
 * 2012 – inducted into the North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame
 * 2013 – SIBA Book Award in Poetry for Descent