Catherine Carter

Catherine Carter grew up in rural tidewater Maryland, raised by a master gardener and a biologist, and her quirky, accessible lyrics reflect those influences. She is the author of several poetry collections, including Larvae of the Nearest Stars (LSU Press, 2019), The Swamp Monster at Home (LSU Press, 2012), The Memory of Gills (LSU Press, 2007), and Marks of the Witch (Jacar Press, 2013). Her poetry has appeared in Best American Poetry 2009, Orion, Poetry magazine, Ecotone, Tar River Poetry, Cortland Review, and Ploughshares, among others. Her work has won the North Carolina Literary Review’s James Applewhite Prize, the North Carolina Literary and Historical Society’s Roanoke-Chowan Award, the North Carolina Writers’ Network’s Randall Jarrell Poetry Competition, Jacar Press’ chapbook contest, Still: The Journal’s poetry prize, and the North Carolina Poetry Society’s poet laureate’s prize.

Carter is a professor of English at Western Carolina University, a poetry editor for Cider Press Review, and the Jackson County regional representative for the North Carolina Writers’ Network. She lives in Cullowhee, North Carolina, with her spouse, Brian Gastle.