Description

The Old Folks Call It God’s Country

—Poems of the Tarheel and Palmetto States

by Carol Parris Krauss

Carol Parris Krauss weaves stories of North Carolina and South Carolina through various people and places. Her poems are a glimpse into the place the Old Folk’s call “God’s Country.” From looking outside her grandparent’s home in Brevard, North Carolina to recounting her sister’s journey to a cottage at Pawleys Island, the reader can travel with her on this journey of recognition and recollection.

Enjoy a Video of Carol Reading from the Book:

Early Praise for The Old Folks Call It God’s Country:

Carol Krauss’ poems are authentic, multifaceted stories of being born and raised in the Carolinas. She makes this richly textured environment she’s known all her life familiar to us through the juxtaposition of vivid memories of growing up in “God’s country” and her observations of being back there in the present. Krauss’ warm, down to earth storytelling is interspersed throughout with startling imagery which makes each poem in this collection a delight to read. From her grandparents’ house that was thumb-smashed into the side of a mountain to the sour breath fog of a hurricane that rears back its head and roars, her words provide a unique view of a physical landscape that is in her blood. She weaves the historical with the contemporary, taking on universal subjects of family history, alcoholism, and school shootings, and grounding it all in her own lived experience as a Southern girl. This collection is also a testament to Krauss’ knowledge of form and her exceptional ability to utilize it to keep each poem new and surprising from page to page. Her ode to Eudora Welty and her conveyance of the shared complexity of being a woman writer in the last poem is a perfect closing to this impressive collection.

—Beth Dulin, writer & editor

The Old Folks Call It God’s Country is full of love and transitions: old bridges, old houses with too-small replacement windows that block the mountain views, old memories that slide into the present. We meet Krauss’s grandfather, an alcoholic, but the standout image in his poem is a beautiful window full of brightly colored bottles—stained glass, really. And there is a wonderful lament about a small crop of winter lettuce, ruined by a cold snap. This is a book of the rural Carolinas with their mountain streams, homegrown corn, and Dollar Stores, where men are gifted the tools but women put the household wheels in motion. These allusive poems, with references to Jane Kenyon and Eudora Welty, create a kind of liminal space, a pause for reflection between a little girl’s miserable corrective shoes and an older woman’s sore hip. Carol Krauss can see bullets in red rubber pencil erasers, but also finds grace on mountain tops and a cruise downtown to the old Courthouse. I call shotgun!

—Christine Potter, author of Unforgetting, Sheltering in Place
and The Bean Books series

In The Old Folks Call it God’s Country: Poems of the Tarheel and Palmetto States, poet Carol Krauss paints a family history that intersects with the beauty and dangers of the natural world. Each poem offers a story to us, full of the wisdom gained from the small hurricanes we live through together.

—Michael Jon Khandelwal, executive director, The Muse Writers Center (Norfolk, VA)

About the Author

Carol Parris Krauss lives in an 83-year-old multi-generational home, that also includes many pets, in Virginia. This Clemson graduate is a high school English teacher. She enjoys employing place and nature as vehicles for her varied themes. She was honored to be recognized as a Best New Poet by UVA. In 2021 her book of poems, Just a Spit Down the Road, was published by Kelsay Books. Some venues where her work has been published include Louisiana Lit, One Art, Schuylkill Valley Journal, Story South, Highland Park Poetry, and Susurrus. Carol was selected for Ghost City Press’ 2023 Micro-Chap Summer Series.

Carol’s author website: CarolParrisKrauss.com