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Women Speak
“Despite the educational and economic inequalities in Appalachia, despite the lack of adequate healthcare and jobs, despite the lack of infrastructure, there are women, such as these, who have contributed to the “Women Speak” anthology, standing in defiance, their words and art like steel girders. In this anthology, this hope chest of creativity, it is the power of the feminine that covers grief with love, suffering with resilience, disappointment with hope, and vulnerability with pride. Some of these poems, stories, songs, memories, and art pieces will make readers smile, even laugh; some will bring them to awed silence or tears; but all will leave them with a sense of what it means to be “stitched at the seam of the mountain.” These are offerings of survival and strength. Despite all the forces set in place to silence them, these beautiful, fierce women speak and in their voices and truths, there is no lack at all.”
-Sandy Coomer
-Sandy Coomer
189 pages, Paperback
First published November 15, 2020
About the author
Kari Gunter-Seymour
20 books22 followersALONE IN THE HOUSE OF MY HEART (Ohio University Swallow Press 2022)
“A breathtaking, artful set of poems on loss, family, place, and memory.”
--Kirkus (Starred review)
“We reckon that nine generations in Appalachia is long enough for a place to get in the bones of a family, and that kinheritance has marked Kari Gunter-Seymour with an intuitive feel for one of America’s most isolated and peculiar regions.”
--Matt Sutherland, Foreword Reviews
“Kari Gunter-Seymour’s talent shines like a diamond in this collection: solid, clear, sparkling.”
--Donna Meredith, Southern Literary Review
Deeply rooted in respect and compassion for Appalachia and its people, the poems included in "Alone in the House of My Heart" are both paeans to and dirges for past and present family, farmlands, factories, and coal. The collection resounds with candid, lyrical poems about Appalachia’s social and geographical afflictions and affirmations. History, culture, and community shape the physical and personal landscapes of Gunter-Seymour’s native southeastern Ohio soil, scarred by Big Coal and fracking, while food insecurity and Big Pharma leave their marks on the region’s people. A musicality of language swaddles each poem in hope and a determination to endure. Alone in the House of My Heart offers what only art can: a series of thought-provoking images that evoke such a clear sense of place that it’s familiar to anyone, regardless of where they call home.
Gunter-Seymour is the Poet Laureate of Ohio, a ninth generation Appalachian and editor of "I Thought I Heard A Cardinal Sing: Ohio's Appalachian Voices, a one-of-a-kind anthology, funded by the Academy of American Poets and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Gunter-Seymour is the executive director and editor of the Women of Appalachia Project™ anthologies, "Women Speak," volumes 1-8 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. A poem she wrote in support of families living in poverty in Athens County, OH, went viral and has been seen by over 100,000 people, resulting in thousands of dollars donated to her local food pantry.
Her poetry collections include "Alone in the House of My Heart" (Ohio University Swallow Press, 2022), "A Place So Deep Inside America It Can’t Be Seen" (Sheila Na Gig Editions, 2020), winner of the 2020 Ohio Poet of the Year Award and the chapbook "Serving" (Crisis Chronicals Press 2020). Her work has been featured on Verse Daily, Cultural Daily, World Literature Today, the New York Times and Poem-a-Day.
Gunter-Seymour is an Ohio Creative Aging Teaching Artist; a retired instructor in the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University; an artist in residence at the Wexner Center for the Arts and a Pillars of Prosperity Fellow for the Foundation for Appalachian Ohio.
Her award winning photography 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.
www.karigunterseymourpoet.com
“A breathtaking, artful set of poems on loss, family, place, and memory.”
--Kirkus (Starred review)
“We reckon that nine generations in Appalachia is long enough for a place to get in the bones of a family, and that kinheritance has marked Kari Gunter-Seymour with an intuitive feel for one of America’s most isolated and peculiar regions.”
--Matt Sutherland, Foreword Reviews
“Kari Gunter-Seymour’s talent shines like a diamond in this collection: solid, clear, sparkling.”
--Donna Meredith, Southern Literary Review
Deeply rooted in respect and compassion for Appalachia and its people, the poems included in "Alone in the House of My Heart" are both paeans to and dirges for past and present family, farmlands, factories, and coal. The collection resounds with candid, lyrical poems about Appalachia’s social and geographical afflictions and affirmations. History, culture, and community shape the physical and personal landscapes of Gunter-Seymour’s native southeastern Ohio soil, scarred by Big Coal and fracking, while food insecurity and Big Pharma leave their marks on the region’s people. A musicality of language swaddles each poem in hope and a determination to endure. Alone in the House of My Heart offers what only art can: a series of thought-provoking images that evoke such a clear sense of place that it’s familiar to anyone, regardless of where they call home.
Gunter-Seymour is the Poet Laureate of Ohio, a ninth generation Appalachian and editor of "I Thought I Heard A Cardinal Sing: Ohio's Appalachian Voices, a one-of-a-kind anthology, funded by the Academy of American Poets and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Gunter-Seymour is the executive director and editor of the Women of Appalachia Project™ anthologies, "Women Speak," volumes 1-8 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. A poem she wrote in support of families living in poverty in Athens County, OH, went viral and has been seen by over 100,000 people, resulting in thousands of dollars donated to her local food pantry.
Her poetry collections include "Alone in the House of My Heart" (Ohio University Swallow Press, 2022), "A Place So Deep Inside America It Can’t Be Seen" (Sheila Na Gig Editions, 2020), winner of the 2020 Ohio Poet of the Year Award and the chapbook "Serving" (Crisis Chronicals Press 2020). Her work has been featured on Verse Daily, Cultural Daily, World Literature Today, the New York Times and Poem-a-Day.
Gunter-Seymour is an Ohio Creative Aging Teaching Artist; a retired instructor in the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University; an artist in residence at the Wexner Center for the Arts and a Pillars of Prosperity Fellow for the Foundation for Appalachian Ohio.
Her award winning photography 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.
www.karigunterseymourpoet.com
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