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N.C. Poet Laureate Kay Byer receives honorary doctorate from alma mater
 N.C. Poet Laureate Kay Byer of Cullowhee received an honorary doctor of literature degree from Georgia’s Wesleyan College during commencement exercises May 13.
The Wesleyan alumna (class of 1966) returned to her alma mater as the 2006 commencement speaker. Byer is North Carolina’s fifth poet laureate and the first woman to hold the post.
Commemorating the occasion with a poem written for the class of 2006, Byer challenged the women of Wesleyan to recognize the authenticity and vitality currently within them and to find the courage to retain these precious qualities as they leave the safety of Wesleyan.
“Forty years later I’ve come back to say, simply, always be ready to welcome the green, all that’s verde within you. Have the courage of your corazon (heart), have esperanza (hope),” she said during the poem’s fifth stanza.
Byer was installed as North Carolina’s poet laureate last June. She has also served as the poet-in-residence at Western Carolina University and Lenoir-Rhyne College. She is a former poetry instructor in the Master of Fine Arts Program at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
As poet laureate, she fosters the literary community of her home state through the design of long-term programs and projects of special interest using resources from the Arts Council and other partners. She also participates in public events and writes poems commemorating occasions of historic or cultural importance. Byer was appointed by Gov. Mike Easley and will serve a two-year term, renewable at the discretion of the governor.
In the first rank of contemporary poets, Byer has been recognized both regionally and nationally for her work. She has received the Brockman Campbell Book Award, the Thomas Wolfe Award, the Lamont Prize from the Academy of American Poets, and the Ann Sexton Poetry Prize. In 2001 she received The North Carolina Award for Literature, the highest honor a citizen of the state can receive, according to Gov. Easley.
Byer has also received fellowships from both the National Endowment for the Arts and the N.C. Arts Council. As an artist-in-residence she has taught at six colleges and schools. After earning a bachelor’s degree with major concentration in English from Wesleyan, Byer later earned a master’s degree in writing from the UNC-G. Byer is the author of several award winning collections of poetry, including “Black Shawl,” “Wildwood Flower,” “The Girl in the Midst of Harvest,” and “Catching Light. Her poems and essays have appeared in many periodicals and anthologies. Basing much of her work on her heritage as a southerner and the area in which she lives, Byer brings to life the stories of women and the lives they lead.
Byer has lived inCullowhee most of her adult life; she is originally from Camilla, Ga.
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