Living Above the Frost Line

Partly underwritten by a grant from the North Carolina Arts Council, Living Above the Frost Line is the first in our Laureate Series which features manuscripts chosen by past or present North Carolina Poets Laureate.

Nancy Simpson is the author of two previous poetry collections, Night Student, and Across Water. She earned an MFA from Warren Wilson College and has had poems published in Prairie Schooner, The Georgia Review, and other literary magazines. She edited Light in the Mountains: Stories, Essays and Poems by Writers Living in and Inspired by the Southern Appalachian Mountains, and most recently edited Echoes Across the Blue Ridge. Seven of her poems were reprinted in McFarland Press s textbook, Southern Appalachian Poetry. In 1991, she received the North Carolina Arts Council Writing Fellowship for poetry. A longtime member of the North Carolina Writers Network, she co-founded Netwest to serve writers in the nine westernmost counties and Qualla Boundary. She founded the Clay County Arts Council Annual Poetry Contest for Middle School, High School and Adults. For the past fifteen years, she has worked to develop the Writing Program as Resident Writer at John C. Campbell Folk School.