Cathy Smith Bowers joins Wordplay!

Would be one way of putting it. And she will, in fact, be joining me in the studios of AshevilleFM once a month, beginning February 21st, to host a "Poet Laureate's Radio Hour" - though that may or may not be what we call it. Tune in and find out, dear reader.

That she'll be doing a radio show was one thing that the Raleigh News & Observer actually got right in its article announcing her appointment as laureate; but, of course, they had interviewed her, and had it from the horse's mouth. Not so right: the laureateship isn't actually a volunteer job that honored poets accept from the goodness of their hearts. The job's way more demanding than that, and it's actually a paid position.

And Cathy has four, not three, books out, all published by Iris Press: The Love That Ended Yesterday in Texas, Traveling in Time of Danger, A Book of Minutes, and The Candle I Hold Up to See You - though the Iris bio page itself mentions just the first three. That's probably where the News & Observer reporter got her information, so I suppose we'll have to forgive her. All Cathy's books, needless to say, are well worth delving into.

It'll be a pleasure to welcome Cathy into the studio again, this time as host.