Robert Penn Warren was an American poet, novelist, and literary critic and was one of the founders of New Criticism. He was also a charter member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers. He founded the literary journal The Southern Review with Cleanth Brooks in 1935. He received the 1947 Pulitzer Prize for the Novel for All the King's Men (1946) and the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1958 and 1979. He is the only person to have won Pulitzer Prizes for both fiction and poetry.
Richard Purdy Wilbur was an American poet and literary translator. One of the foremost poets, along with his friend Anthony Hecht, of the World War II generation, Wilbur's work, often employing rhyme, and composed primarily in traditional forms, was marked by its wit, charm, and gentlemanly elegance. He was acclaimed in his youth as the heir to Robert Frost, translated the verse dramas of Moliere, Corneille, and Racine into rhymed English, collaborated with Leonard Bernstein as the lyricist for the opera Candide, and in his old age acted, particularly through his role in the annual West Chester University Poetry Conference, as a mentor to the younger poets of the New Formalist movement. He was appointed the second Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1987 and received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry twice, in 1957 and 1989.
Benson is a town in Johnston County, North Carolina, United States, near the intersection of Interstates 95 and 40. Benson celebrates Mule Days on the fourth Saturday of September, a festival that attracts over 60,000 people each year. At the 2020 census, the population was 3,967.
Walter H. Dalton is an American attorney and politician who served as the 33rd Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina. A member of the Democratic Party, he served six terms in the state senate before his election to the office of lieutenant governor in 2008.
Roy Asberry Cooper III is an American attorney and politician who served as the 75th governor of North Carolina from 2017 to 2025. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 50th attorney general of North Carolina from 2001 to 2017, and in the North Carolina General Assembly, in both the House, from 1987 to 1991, and the Senate, from 1991 to 2001.
Samuel Talmadge Ragan was an American journalist, author, poet, and arts advocate from North Carolina.
Patrick Lloyd McCrory is an American politician, businessman, and radio host who served as the 74th governor of North Carolina from 2013 to 2017. McCrory is the only Republican elected as governor of North Carolina in the 21st century. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as the 53rd mayor of Charlotte from 1995 to 2009.
The 2008 North Carolina gubernatorial election was held on November 4, 2008, coinciding with the presidential, U.S. Senate, U.S. House elections, Council of State and statewide judicial elections. Democrat Bev Perdue won the election. With a margin of 3.39%, this election was the closest race of the 2008 gubernatorial election cycle. This was the first time that the same party that was elected governor, won the concurrent presidential race since 1988. This was the first time Democrats did so since 1976.
James Arthur Pope is an American businessman, attorney and former government official. Pope is the owner, chairman and CEO of Variety Wholesalers, a group of 370 retail stores in 16 states. He is also the president and chairman of the John William Pope Foundation. He previously served in the North Carolina House of Representatives and recently served as the Budget Director for North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory.
The North Carolina Poet Laureate is the poet laureate for the US state of North Carolina. At first a life appointment, the term of office is now two years. The program is run by the North Carolina Arts Council. Laureates are appointed by the Governor of North Carolina.
Kathryn Stripling Byer, also called Kay Byer, was an American poet and teacher. She was named by Governor Mike Easley as the fifth North Carolina Poet Laureate from 2005 to 2009. She was the first woman to hold the position.
Moral Mondays are protests that originated in North Carolina, United States and emerged elsewhere in the United States. Led by religious progressives, the leaders of the protesters sought to restore "morality" in the public sphere. Protests began in response to several actions by the government of North Carolina which was elected into office in 2013 and are characterized by civil disobedience—specifically entering the state legislature building to be peacefully arrested. The movement protests many wide-ranging issues under the blanket claim of unfair treatment, discrimination, and adverse effects of government legislation on the citizens of North Carolina. The protests in North Carolina launched a grassroots social justice movement that, in 2014, spread to Georgia and South Carolina, and then to other U.S. states such as Illinois and New Mexico.
The 2016 North Carolina gubernatorial election was held on November 8, 2016, concurrently with the 2016 U.S. presidential election, as well as elections to the United States Senate and elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections. Democratic state attorney general Roy Cooper won his first term in office, defeating Republican incumbent Pat McCrory.
Susan Wear Kluttz is a former Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources and was formerly the longest-serving mayor of Salisbury, North Carolina.
Valerie Macon is an American civil servant and poet. She was named by Governor Pat McCrory as the eighth North Carolina Poet Laureate, a position she was set to hold from 2014 to 2016. Appointed on July 11, 2014, she resigned on July 17, 2014 amid controversy over the appointment. Macon continues to work for the state's Department of Health and Human Services as a Disability Examiner. Her two books of poetry prior to her appointment to North Carolina poet laureate were self-published in 2011 and 2014.
The Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act, commonly known as House Bill 2 or HB2, was a North Carolina statute passed in March 2016 and signed into law by Governor Pat McCrory. The bill amended state law to preempt any anti-discrimination ordinances passed by local communities and, controversially, compelled schools and state and local government facilities containing single-gender bathrooms to only allow people of the corresponding sex as listed on their birth certificate to use them; it also gave the state exclusive rights to determine the minimum wage.
Grace DiSanto (1924-1993) was an American journalist and poet based in North Carolina.
Catherine Truitt is an American educator and politician who served as the 21st North Carolina superintendent of public instruction from January 2, 2021 until January 1, 2025. A member of the Republican Party, Truitt previously served as senior advisor on education to North Carolina governor Pat McCrory from 2015 to 2017. She has been the chancellor of the online Western Governors University North Carolina since its establishment in 2017. Truitt ran for reelection in 2024, but was defeated in the Republican primary by Michele Morrow.
Ann Gordon McCrory is an American human resources manager who, as the wife of Pat McCrory, was the first lady of Charlotte, North Carolina from 1995 to 2009 and first lady of North Carolina from 2013 to 2017. McCrory led a fairly private life during her time as first lady, and rarely made public appearances. She has worked as the vice president of human resources for YMCA and as a regional human resources manager at Cigna.
Mary Bernetta Quinn (1915–2003), who published as M. Bernetta Quinn, was a Franciscan nun, literary critic, and correspondent with many of the most notable poets and writers of her era. The author of five books and many academic articles, she published on the Catholic Church's engagement with modernist poetry, particularly in works by Flannery O'Connor, Denise Levertov, Ezra Pound, Wallace Stevens, and Randall Jarrell, all of whom were among her many literary correspondents.
