Shelby Stephenson is Poet Laureate of North Carolina. His recent books are Paul’s Hill: Homage to Whitman (Sir Walter Press); Elegies for Small Game (Press 53), winner of Roanoke-Chowan Award; Fiddledeedee (reissue, Press 53); Family Matters: Homage to July, the Slave Girl (Bellday Books), winner of the Bellday Prize; Maytle’s World (play). He is recipient of the Distinguished Alumnus Achievement Award, 2015, Department of English, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and is Professor Emeritus, University of North Carolina-Pembroke, where he served as editor of Pembroke Magazine from 1979 until his retirement in 2010. He lives at the homeplace on Paul’s Hill, where he was born, near McGee’s Crossroads, about ten miles northwest of Benson.