Kathryn Stripling Byer
Kathryn Stripling Byer was the author of six books of poetry, including Descent (LSU Press, 2012) and Southern Fictions (Jacar Press, 2011). She earned a BA from Wesleyan College in Georgia and an MFA from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Byer served as North Carolina's poet laureate from 2005 to 2009. She died in 2017.