Tar River Poetry
Encyclopedia
East Carolina University
East Carolina University is a public, coeducational, engaged doctoral/research university located in Greenville, North Carolina, United States. Named East Carolina University by statute and commonly known as ECU or East Carolina, the university is the largest institution of higher learning in...
(ECU). Published twice a year (fall and spring), the 64-page journal consists of submitted written works of poetry
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
, critical essay
Essay
An essay is a piece of writing which is often written from an author's personal point of view. Essays can consist of a number of elements, including: literary criticism, political manifestos, learned arguments, observations of daily life, recollections, and reflections of the author. The definition...
s, and book review
Book review
A book review is a form of literary criticism in which a book is analyzed based on content, style, and merit. A book review could be a primary source opinion piece, summary review or scholarly review. It is often carried out in periodicals, as school work, or on the internet. Reviews are also often...
s. The journal is named for the Tar River
Tar River
The Tar River is a river that is approximately long, of northeast North Carolina flowing generally southeast to an estuary of Pamlico Sound. The Tar River becomes the tidal Pamlico River once it underpasses the U.S...
, which runs through Greenville, NC (home of ECU). First published in 1960.
Contributors
Tar River Poetry has published many of the best-known American poets of the late 20th and early 21st century, including Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winners Claudia EmersonClaudia Emerson
Claudia Emerson is an American poet who won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for her collection Late Wife.-Background:...
, William Stafford, Louis Simpson
Louis Simpson
Louis Aston Marantz Simpson is an American poet. He won the 1964 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his work At The End Of The Open Road.-Life:...
, Carolyn Kizer
Carolyn Kizer
Carolyn Ashley Kizer is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet of the Pacific Northwest whose works reflect her feminism.-Life and work:...
, Henry Taylor
Henry S. Taylor
Henry S. Taylor is a Pulitzer Prize winning American poet and author of over 15 books of poetry.Taylor was born on 21 June 1942 in rural Loudoun County, Virginia, where he was raised as a Quaker. He went to high school at George School in Newtown, Pennsylvania. He graduated from the University of...
, and A.R. Ammons, and many other well-known poets including Sharon Olds
Sharon Olds
-Life:Sharon Olds was born in 1942 in San Francisco. She was raised as a “hellfire Calvinist”, as she describes it. She says she was by nature "a pagan and a pantheist" and notes "I was in a church where there was both great literary art and bad literary art, the great art being psalms and the bad...
, Leslie Norris
Leslie Norris
George Leslie Norris FRSL , was a prize-winning Welsh poet and short story writer. Up to 1974 he earned his living as a college lecturer, teacher and headmaster...
, William Matthews
William Matthews (poet)
William Matthews was an American poet and essayist.-Life:Raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, Matthews earned a bachelor's degree from Yale University, and a master's from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.In addition to serving as a Writer-in-Residence at Boston's Emerson College, Matthews...
, Albert Goldbarth
Albert Goldbarth
Albert Goldbarth is an American poet born January 31, 1948 in Chicago. He is known for his prolific production, his gregarious tone, his eclectic interests and his distinctive 'talky' style. He has been a Guggenheim fellow and won the National Book Critics Circle award in 1991 and 2001, the only...
, and Patricia Goedicke
Patricia Goedicke
Patricia Goedicke was an American poet.Born Patricia McKenna in Boston, Massachusetts, she grew up in Hanover, New Hampshire, where her father was a resident psychiatrist at Dartmouth College. During her high school years she was an accomplished downhill skier. She earned her B.A. at Middlebury...
.
History
The journal grew out of an earlier publication, Tar River Poets, originally edited by ECU English professor and Director of the ECU Poetry Forum Vernon Ward. Tar River Poets published members of the Poetry Forum only (that is, poets local to Greenville, NC). Upon Prof. Ward's retirement, poet Peter MakuckPeter Makuck
Peter Makuck is an American poet, short story writer, and critic. He is Distinguished Professor emeritus Professor of English at East Carolina University, where he was also the first Distinguished Professor of Arts and Sciences; he has also served as Visiting Writer in Residence at Brigham Young...
took over the editorship and renamed the journal, opening it to outside submissions and publishing the first issue as Tar River Poetry in November 1978, but retaining the numbering system of the earlier journal (thus the first issue with the new name was published as issue 18, number 1). The 30th Anniversary issue, published in December 2008, included an interview with Makuck.
Editors
- Vernon Ward (founder - 1978)
- Peter Makuck (1978 - 2006)
- Luke WhisnantLuke WhisnantLuke Whisnant is an American novelist, short story writer and poet. His first novel, Watching TV with the Red Chinese, was published in 1992 and was made into a feature film in 2008. Down in the Flood, a collection of short stories, was published in 2006. Whisnant earned his B.A. in English from...
(2006 - present), with Carolyn ElkinsCarolyn ElkinsCarolyn Elkins is an American poet, award-winning teacher, and editor. She has published three books and over 100 poems in journals in the United States and abroad. Elkins is the associate editor of Tar River Poetry, the poetry and fiction editor of POMPA, and a founding editor of Ruby Shoes Press...
Associate Editor