Excerpt from TWENTY SOUTH CAROLINA FELLOWS

From the “Introduction”

Several months ago, I was approached by Hub City, a really innovative publishing house in the Spartanburg/ Greenville area, and the South Carolina Arts Commission, to write the introduction to a new anthology of poetry featuring the twenty winners of the annual Poetry fellowship awards granted by the Arts Commission. The thing that sold me into doing the introduction was the fact that the anthology was to contain, not only the poems of these poets, but introductory statements by each poet about their process and about their understanding of what poetry means.  
 
There is something quite revealing about the way these poets speak of their art.  Indeed, I have always held to the view that we should be somewhat skeptical about what writers say about their own work, yet I am not convinced by my skepticism.  I must not be because I continue to read poets writing about poetry, and I continue to enjoy listening to the what I call the banter that poets use during readings in between reading their poems.  Sometimes, I find the banter even more compelling than the reading of the poem.  This is probably because while I am able to return to the poems on the page, and while I may have actually read the poems before hand, I find the banter refreshing and fascinating.  I also find that it gives me a new entry into the poems.  Typically in this banter, the poet “introduces” the poem, sometimes telling us what prompted the poem, and giving us some contextualizing information to shape how we respond to the poem.  Such authority is alluring.  We believe what the poet says and we place that before us as we hear the poem....
 
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The result is quite impressive.  The poems, themselves are quite strong pieces and beautifully eclectic.  There is in these poems much that speaks to the issue of regionalism in American poetry.  With a few exceptions, these poets are acutely aware of the Southern space even if the poems are not necessarily “about the south”.  At the same time, a look at these poems reveals that many of these poets are products of trends in contemporary American poetry.