Ohio’s Kari Gunter-Seymour wins grant to put toward community work

ALBANY, OHIO — Ohio native and poet Kari Gunter-Seymour has had a busy year. So busy, in fact, that she didn’t get to plant the garden that she and her husband Jeffrey Peterson religiously grow and cultivate each summer.
In June 2020, Gunter-Seymour was announced as the next Ohio Poet Laureate by Gov. Mike DeWine. Also in 2020, Gunter-Seymour was named Ohio Poet of the Year by the Ohio Poetry Association.
And in June 2021, she was awarded a $50,000 grant from the Academy of American Poets as a Poet Laureate Fellow. The program is intended to empower Gunter-Seymour and a select handful of poet laureates from around the country to lead public poetry programs in their respective communities.
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Despite all of the work that has come with these prestigious recognitions, Gunter-Seymour managed to find time to plant a tiny raised bed for her 9-year-old granddaughter Madison.
The garden is no larger than a bath mat, a tiny blotch of green among the dozens of dirt-filled raised beds that would typically be bursting with color. In Madison’s garden, Gunter-Seymour has planted squash, tomatoes and herbs.
“I just wanted her to get her fingers in the dirt,” Gunter-Seymour said, “Even though she’s probably pulled up the plants themselves,” she laughed. To her — it doesn’t matter— as long as Madison gets to experience what it’s like to grow and cultivate something with her own hands.
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Kari Gunter-Seymour connects heritage and life through poetry
Gunter-Seymour has had plenty of experience cultivating things  —  be that a lasting love of poetry, an entire program aimed at uplifting Appalachian writers, or a simple raised bed.  
Born in Amesville, Ohio, a small town in Athens County that is part of the Appalachian region of Ohio, she was raised on her grandparent’s sustainable farm and brought up with Appalachian values. As a ninth-generation Appalachian, Gunter-Seymour is proud of her heritage and how she was raised.
“I just knew I didn’t fit in, but then, I figured it out… ‘Oh, it’s because I’m Appalachian.’” She paused.  
“And there are just certain things that go with that. Our sense of honor, our sense of love of the land, our pride in our people, all those things made me Appalachian,” she said.
However, the link of her heritage, life and story to poetry would not come until much laterin life. Gunter-Seymour began her poetry journey in 2009, when she was encouraged to transition from journaling to writing poems.
“Someone said to me, you need to think about writing poems because it makes you focus in really tight, you have to think about every word, you know, and they were right,” she said, “and when you get that finite, that you’re pulling it in so tightly, then you really start to accept what it is you’re really dealing with.”
Experience is just a number
But even at 66, Gunter-Seymour would be the first to say she is not the most experienced poet; “I’ve not been writing at all, in poet years,” she laughed.
She graduated from Ohio University in 1994 with a bachelor of fine arts degree in graphic design, and more recently, in 2006, graduated from OU  with a master of fine arts in commercial photography.
Even though she hasn’t been writing for eons, Gunter-Seymour said her progress was possible from the guidance and advice so willingly given to her by other members of the poetry community.
“I had people who were kind enough to tell me, these are not good, and here’s why,” she said. And she has paid those favors forward.
Before becoming the Ohio Poet Laureate, Gunter-Seymour held the title of Athens Poet Laureate from February 2018 to February 2020. During that time, her goal was to cultivate the voices and contributions of writers in Athens County by bringing them together over potluck dinners.  Guests would bring a dish, a piece of writing and a chair, and so began what she called “impromptu open mics.” 
‘It feels very Appalachian’
Stephanie Kendrick is a young writer that has been living in Athens County for the past 15 years, and attended nearly all of the potluck dinners. “I don’t know if this is specific to Appalachia, but it feels very Appalachian to just walk into a gathering or whatever it is, and then there just being a table lined with food,” she said.
Through the potlucks, Kendrick grew closer to Gunter-Seymour, and therefore, grew in her writing. “From the time I met Kari… to now, my whole trajectory as a writer has changed. And I owe most of that to Kari,” Kendrick said. 
After meeting Gunter-Seymour in 2017 through the Women of Appalachia Project — a program founded by Gunter-Seymour that encourages women of diverse backgrounds, ages and experiences to come together and share submissions of spoken word and fine art —  Kendrick published her first book, “Places We Feel Warm,” in 2021. 
“The thing with Kari is that, once you’ve sort of stumbled into her vortex, there are so many opportunities that come into play,” Kendrick said. 
Brining writers, thinkers together for collaborative projects
Gunter-Seymour continues to create opportunities for the people inside and outside of her community. In 2018, Gunter-Seymour started the “Spoken & Heard” events in which writers from Illinois, Kentucky and West Virginia travel to Ohio to read, collaborate and inspire the writers in attendance. And Gunter-Seymour’s favorite part? 
She encourages the writers to read their pieces out loud in front of the Spoken & Heard audience. And even though most of them went up kicking and screaming the first time, Gunter-Seymour said many would come around after a few performances.
And little did Gunter-Seymour know, these events laid the groundwork for her nomination as Ohio Poet Laureate.
“All those people that I forced up on stage to read their work, when it came time to apply to the position, they said, ‘You made us do it.’” Gunter-Seymour laughed. “’You better do it, too!’ And they all wrote letters and nominated me,” she said.
Throughout Gunter-Seymour’s career, people have continued to support her. In his letter to nominate Gunter-Seymour for the Academy of American Poets position, Chuck Salmons, the Ohio Poetry Association president, wrote:
“For more than a decade, Kari has dedicated her creative efforts to serving and representing Appalachians and working hard to overturn the myriad of misconceptions about their culture. As an experienced educator, artist, and poet, she possesses the training and talent to accomplish this mission and has garnered much support along the way from various organizations and supporters.”
‘For my people… I did it’
Gunter-Seymour firmly believes that without community, she would not be where she is today. “I did not think there was a chance in the world I would be a poet laureate, but for my people… I did it. I just thought — I need to do this…”
Gunter-Seymour is passionate about her Appalachian heritage, and the challenges facing her community. 
Proper representation of the Appalachian community, breaking the stereotypes America has of Appalachian people, and uplifting the “pockets” of Appalachian Ohio that exist today inspire Gunter-Seymour in her writing, her outreach, and her service in the Appalachian community.
“Community, helping others, that is the Appalachian way. I’m telling you,” she said. 
And Gunter-Seymour takes that philosophy with her everywhere she goes.
Throughout her time as the Ohio Poet Laureate, Gunter-Seymour has made efforts to work with teenagers and people who are incarcerated, by conducting workshops and teaching them the healing power of poetry. 
And soon, Gunter-Seymour will be working with high school students and teachers from throughout central Ohio in Pages, a literacy program at the Wexner Center for the Arts where she will be the Learning & Public Practice artist-in-residence.
And with this new opportunity from the Academy of American Poets, Gunter-Seymour has a plethora of community work on the horizon, including opening the doors of poetry to women who are recovering from addiction and living in recovery housing. 
New book effort: ‘I Thought I Heard a Cardinal Sing’
She also plans to put together a book, hoping to gather as many Ohio Appalachian voices as she possibly can.
The book, “I Thought I Heard a Cardinal Sing,” will feature work from fellow Ohioans.
“If you’re living in Ohio and you have Appalachian roots, if you have lived in Ohio and you have Appalachian roots, if you want to write about someone you know who’s Appalachian in Ohio, you want to write about the land in Ohio, you want to write about a historical location in Appalachian Ohio, all of these are fair game and I welcome them all,” she said. 
Gunter-Seymour will be taking submissions for the book via her website, www.karigunterseymourpoet.com, from Aug.1 through Nov. 15, and the book will be published by next spring. 
“People don’t even realize people in are Ohio are Appalachian,” Gunter-Seymour said. “So that’s my goal, to put Ohio Appalachia on the map!”
ewright@dispatch.com
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