Professor of English Carolyn Beard Whitlow appeared on the radio program Prosody, which aired nationally on the Internet on Sept. 30 at 7 p.m.
“I was asked to sit for an interview and to read my poetry on NPR affiliate WYEP in Pittsburgh, after I did a reading at the Cave Canem Retreat/Workshop at the University of Pittsburgh last June,” said Whitlow.
“Nationally renowned poet and co-founder of Cave Canem, Toi Derricotte, invited me to do the reading on Prosody, a program featuring one poet weekly. The interview was conducted by Jan Beatty, author of Boneshaker.”
Whitlow read poems from a larger work called Vanished. She said one such poem was “the incantatory tribute to blues singers, which serves as the opening movement of a four-part poem, ‘Verily Verite.'”
Both Becky Gibson, Associate Professor of English, and Jim Hood, Associate Professor of English and Associate Academic Dean, praise Whitlow’s writing. Gibson said she thinks of Whitlow’s poetry as “verbal pyrotechnics.”
“I’ve always been impressed by the musical qualities of Carolyn’s poetry, said Hood. “Her poems soar along the trajectory of language’s sheer delight.”
Appearing on Prosody certainly isn’t Whitlow’s only achievement.
“Carolyn has been chair of the English Department, has developed a number of popular and demanding courses (including Black Women Writers, Black Men Writers, Harlem Renaissance, African Women Writers), and has served the college in the capacity of Clerk of the Faculty,” said Hood.
Gibson said, “Carolyn was a strong leader when she chaired the department (1999-2002). She’s very organized and [she] straightened out some of the chaotic systems of the past.”
Gibson and Hood both find that Guilford students are interested in poetry. “Eighty people – most of them students – attended the recent faculty reading,” said Gibson. “Poetry workshops are usually full to overflowing.”
“The Piper is thriving, the recent campus reading (much of which was poetry) was very well attended, and many students write on their own or in writing groups,” said Hood
Perhaps Whitlow’s achievement will further inspire Guilford’s many (as of yet) undiscovered bards.