Storied Charlotte
Storied Charlotte
  • Home
  • Storied Charlotte
  • Monday Missive

Contact Me

Office: Fretwell 290D
Phone: 704-687-0618
Email: miwest@uncc.edu

Links

  • A Reader’s Guide to Fiction and Nonfiction books by Charlotte area authors
  • Charlotte book art
  • Charlotte Lit
  • Charlotte Readers Podcast
  • Charlotte Writers Club
  • Column on Reading Aloud
  • Department of English
  • JFK/Harry Golden column
  • Park Road Books
  • Storied Charlotte YouTube channel
  • The Charlotte History Tool Kit
  • The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Story

Archives

  • May 2025
  • April 2025
  • March 2025
  • February 2025
  • January 2025
  • December 2024
  • November 2024
  • October 2024
  • September 2024
  • August 2024
  • July 2024
  • June 2024
  • May 2024
  • April 2024
  • March 2024
  • February 2024
  • January 2024
  • December 2023
  • November 2023
  • October 2023
  • September 2023
  • August 2023
  • July 2023
  • June 2023
  • May 2023
  • April 2023
  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013

Tags

American West anthology Black History Charlotte Charlotte Authors Charlotte Lit Charlotte poets Charlotte Readers Podcast Charlotte writers Civil Rights Movement cookbooks fantasy adventure novels fantasy stories fiction foodways genre fiction graphic novel historical fiction historical novels Judy Goldman lesbian characters lesbian writers Main Street Rag memoir middle-grade novel mystery novel mystery novels mystery series nonfiction novel novels Oz pandemic picture book picture books poetry poetry collection President Jimmy Carter Promising Pages Reading Aloud The Independent Picture House urban fantasy Verse & Vino Writers young adult fantasy novel

Chris Arvidson Finds Her Voice as a Poet

June 06, 2022 by Mark West
Categories: Storied Charlotte

A few years ago, I wrote a Storied Charlotte blog post about Chris Arvidson’s anthology titled The Love of Baseball:  Essays by Lifelong Fans.  At the time that I wrote about her baseball anthology, I would have described Chris as a writer of creative nonfiction.  I knew that she covered poetry in the creative writing classes that she regularly teaches at UNC Charlotte, but I wasn’t then aware that she had taken an interest in writing poetry.   Over the years, however, I have learned that some writers are hard to pin down, and Chris is such a writer.  I first became aware of Chris’s interest in writing poetry when I noticed that she was one of the Charlotte poets featured in the Of Earth and Sky:  Poetry Anthology 2021.  Her career as a poet has taken a big step forward this month with the publication of The House Inside My Head, her first poetry collection.  For more information about this collection, please click the following link:  https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/the-house-inside-my-head-by-chris-arvidson/

I contacted Chris and asked her about how she came to write The House Inside My Head.  Here is what she sent to me:

Poetry has come to me late in my writing life. My MFA and subsequent nonfiction work has been about people, places, baseball…. But when my husband Henry and I moved back to Charlotte, after being gone to such far-flung places as Traverse City, MI, and Pittsburgh, it just started pouring out of me. I blame it on the Charlotte Mecklenburg library uptown, and Charlotte Lit’s Pen to Paper writing sessions.

The first week we were back, I started going to the Thursday morning Write Like You Mean It sessions at the library. And then I added in Pen to Paper at Charlotte Lit once a week. Soon the library started a bi-weekly Poetry in Pajamas, and I thought, well, hell, why not? All the prompts all seemed to “prompt” me to poetry.

Then the pandemic hit and that just egged me on even more. We started Zooming and still there was poetry. Before I knew it, I had a pretty big collection of stuff people seemed to like, so on the advice of poetry friends I sent it in to Finishing Line Press’ annual chapbook contest. I didn’t win, but they asked to publish the chapbook.

In my Introduction to Creative Writing class at UNC Charlotte, the final exam is to submit what you think is your best work for publication. Students decide which pieces of their work over the semester is their best, revise and polish, then research the right place for submission. I could hardly do less.

By the way, every semester, at least one student gets their work published. I like to think about how that final exam could prompt a lifelong habit. One of my students, Luther “Cole” Kissam V, just published a full-length poetry collection titled Have I Told You about My Superpowers.  Some of the poems in the collection he wrote in my class. He will be reading from his new book at Park Road Books on Sunday, June 12, 2022, at 3 pm.Is that great or what?

I agree—it is great.  I think it’s great that both Chris and Cole have poetry books that have come out this month.  I think it’s great Storied Charlotte is a place where writers such as Chris and Cole can find the support they need to grow as writers. 

Tags: poetry collection
Skip to toolbar
  • Log In