Clemson University Publishes Hickory Poet's New Book

News on Shadows Trail Them Home in the Outlook today.

CLEMSON UNIVERSITY PUBLISHES HICKORY POET’S NEW BOOK

Clemson University has just released Hickory poet, Scott Owens’ 10th book, Shadows Trail Them Home. The book is a love story told through a narrative sequence of poems written by Owens and collaborator, Pris Campbell. This is the second collaboration Owens has produced with Campbell. The first, The Nature of Attraction, was published by Main Street Rag Publishing Company in 2010.

Owens describes Shadows Trail Them Home as “a novel told in 71 poems about the relationship of two characters created by two different writers who have themselves never met, nor even spoken in any capacity aside from email.”

Author and Clemson University Professor Emeritus, Ronald Moran, says of the book, “This is an important contribution to the cultural canon of American life, presented in an engaging (but disturbing) context.” And Suzanne Hudson, award-winning author of In the Dark of the Moon, states, “The story of Norman and Sara exposes innumerable shades of joy and pain in our deepest human drive—the one that dances us toward, away from, but ever-toward love.”

Owens, who teaches creative writing at Catawba Valley Community College, is a very active member of the local and state writing community. He serves as vice-president of both the NC Poetry Society and the Poetry Council of NC. He is the regional representative of the NC Writers’ Network, and the coordinator of Hickory’s Writers’ Night Out. He is the founder of Poetry Hickory and co-founder of the Art of Poetry at the Hickory Museum of Art. He is also editor of Wild Goose Poetry Review and 234.

Owens’ previous books have included The Fractured World (Main Street Rag, 2008), Paternity (Main Street Rag, 2010), Something Knows the Moment (Main Street Rag, 2011), and For One Who Knows How to Own Land (FutureCycle Press, 2012). His work has received awards from the Academy of American Poets, the Pushcart Prize Anthology, the Next Generation/IndieLit Awards, and the Poetry Society of South Carolina.

The official release event for Shadows Trail Them Home will be held at Taste Full Beans Coffeehouse in downtown Hickory from 2:00 to 4:00 on Saturday, January 26. Owens will be available to sign copies of the book, and will read a few of the poems aloud.