Listen Here: Women Writing in Appalachia

Kathy L. May

@{ATHY~~AY (October 17, 1952- ) Kathy L. May was born in southern Ohio but spent her childhood in Floyd County, Kentucky. "Some of my earliest memories are of the frequent floods that devastated that area of eastern Kentucky," says May. "My first serious poem, 'Rain,' was about those floods." May earned a B.S. in psychology in 1974 from the University ofLouisville , and an M.F.A. in creative writing in 1987 from Indiana University, where she was the recipient of the first Samuel Yellen Fellowship. In 1997, she won the Wind Magazine short fiction competition. Other awards include a poetry grant from the Kentucky Foundation for Women, and a fellowship from the MacDowell Colony. May's work has appeared in American Voice, Southern Poetry Review, Mississippi Review, and Appalachian Heritage. She has taught literature and writing at Indiana University, Virginia Tech, and Piedmont Virginia Community College. She currently teaches Appalachian literature and creative writing through the University of Virginia's School of Continuing Education. Her collection of poems, Door to the River, was published in 1992 in the Panhandler Poetry Chapbook series at the University ofWest Florida. Her first children's book, MolassesMan, was published in 2000. Maylives in Charlottesville, Virginia, with her husband, Garry Barrow, and their two children. OTHER SOURCES TO EXPLORE PRIMARY Poetry: Door to the River (1992). Books for children: Molasses Man (2000). SECONDARY "Kathy L. May's Web Page," Presented by America Writes for Kids, [web site] http:// usawrites4kids.drury.edu/authors/may/ 391 ...