Press 53

The Collected Poems of Cathy Smith Bowers, Paperback/Cathy Smith Bowers

Award Name Pat Conroy Southern Book Prize Award category Poetry Former North Carolina Poet Laureate Cathy Smith Bowers is celebrated with this impressive volume of her collected poems. Four complete collections: The Love That Ended Yesterday in Texas; Traveling in Time of Danger; A Book of Minutes; The Candle I Hold Up to See You, with an introduction by another former North Carolina Poet Laureate, Fred Chappell, who says, "Hardship, cruelty, heartbreak, bleak sorrow-these sad themes are plentiful in the pages of Cathy Smith Bowers. But in its smoldering heart, her poetry holds, like the pi ata in 'The Party, ' a 'sweet, dark center.'"