Books by Kathryn Stripling Byer

Inspired by a series of photographs entitled "Evelyn" - which depicts a former artist's model in her declining years, still full of life and facing death with flair and wit - Kathryn Byer finds a voice to contemplate the enigmatic but inevitable process of growing old.

Emanates from Kathryn Stripling Byer's fascination with female ballad singers in southern Appalachia, whose voices haunt the mountains still, and from the image of a black net or shawl being dragged over the ground, plumbing the depths, collecting bits and fragments of a woman's life.

Navigating the dangerous currents of family and race, Kathryn Stripling Byer's sixth poetry collection confronts the legacy of southern memory, where too often "it's safer to stay blind." Ultimately, Descent creates a fragile reconciliation between past and present, calling over and over again to celebrate being Here. Where I am.

Kathryn Stripling Byer in these poems engages the contradictions inherent in the act of coming home. She explores the step-by-step leaving and returning - and finding "home" transformed because of the journey.