Visiting Writers Series: Kari Gunter-Seymour

As the Poet Laureate of Ohio, Kari Gunter-Seymour’s work is firmly and unapologetically attached to her home soil, and is an examination of the long-lasting effects of stereotype and false narratives surrounding Appalachians.

Her poetry collections include “Alone in the House of My Heart” (Ohio University Swallow Press, 2022), “A Place So Deep Inside America It Can’t Be Seen” (Sheila Na Gig Editions, 2020), winner of the 2020 Ohio Poet of the Year Award, and the chapbook “Serving” (Crisis Chronicles Press, 2018). Her work has been featured in “Verse Daily,” “Cultural Daily,” “World Literature Today” and “The New York Times.” A ninth generation Appalachian, she is the editor of “I Thought I Heard a Cardinal Sing: Ohio’s Appalachian Voices,” funded by the Academy of American Poets and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Women of Appalachia Project’s anthology series, “Women Speak.”

Gunter-Seymour holds a BFA in graphic design and an M.A. in commercial photography and is a retired instructor in the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University. She is the founder, curator and host of “Spoken & Heard,” a seasonal performance series featuring poets, writers and musicians from across the country; an artist in residence at the Wexner Center for the Arts and a 2021-22 Pillar of Prosperity Fellow for the Foundation for Appalachian Ohio.