CLS: Kari Gunter-Seymour

As part of the Chautauqua Lecture Series on Authors and Writing, Ohio Poet Laureate Kari Gunter Seymour will speak virtually from the Wellness Center in Drackett Hall at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, June 9 and Friday, June 10 at 10:30 a.m.

Participants will investigate spaces of their own hand-drawn blueprint/map of a place they have lived happily in the past. An intricate series of questions and prompts will focus on capturing the energy of a specific location on the blueprint, explore actual spaces from the past—calling up life experiences as we take a virtual walk around our maps, avoiding the obstacles that often distract us or otherwise prevent us from tapping into the inner roots of “feel-good” storytelling and writing. For those who are willing, we will share what we have remembered, rediscovered, and written near the end of the session.

About Kari Gunter Seymour 

In a time of inflated posturing and relentless self-promotion, Gunter-Seymour’s poems offer a refuge. A ninth-generation Appalachian, her work is unapologetically connected to her home soil and examines the long-lasting effects of stereotypes and false narratives surrounding the Appalachians. More than merely commenting, her work dares to search for meaning.

Gunter-Seymour’s current collection, A Place So Deep Inside America It Can’t Be Seen, is the winner of the 2020 Ohio Poet of the Year Award and long listed for the Jacar Press Julie Suk Award. Her poetry has also been featured in the NY Times, World Literature Today, Verse Daily, and many other publications.

Recipient of the 2021 Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellowship grant, Gunter-Seymour holds a BFA in graphic design and an MA in commercial photography and is a retired instructor in the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University.

Her award-winning photography has been published nationally in The Sun Magazine, World Literature Today, Looking at Appalachia, Vine Leaves Journal and Appalachian Review.

Gunter-Seymour is the founder and Executive Director of the Women of Appalachia Project, an arts organization to address discrimination directed at women from the Appalachian region by encouraging women artists of diverse backgrounds, ages, and experiences to come together. Learn more about the organization at womenofappalachia.com.