Background
Mrs. Potter was born in Washington, Connecticut, United States, on December 11, 1950. She is a daughter of F. Arthur (a farmer) and Jean (a teacher; maiden name, Fenton) Potter.
Mrs. Potter was born in Washington, Connecticut, United States, on December 11, 1950. She is a daughter of F. Arthur (a farmer) and Jean (a teacher; maiden name, Fenton) Potter.
Carol Potter attended Boston University from 1968 to 1969. She graduated from University of Massachusetts at Amherst with Bachelor of Arts in 1978 and Master of Fine Arts in 1981.
Starting from 1984 Mrs. Potter worked at Holyoke Community College, Holyoke, MA, holding the post of a professor. Mrs. Potter taught for 17 years at Holyoke Community College, currently teaches in the MFA program at Antioch University in Los Angeles, as well as at Community College of Vermont in Newport. She is a writer and gives readings from her works.
(These poems by Carol Potter, about being a woman, a mothe...)
1995
Quotations:
"My poems rise from the mystery, the bafflement, the joy, the anger that being one of the creatures on this earth engender. They come to speak, to try to make sense of it all. and to praise. I have been writing since early adolescence, very much influenced by life in a large family, growing up on a dairy farm in the fifties and sixties, while watching the civil rights movement and the war in Vietnam unfold."
"I read a wide variety of poets, but I am particularly drawn to work that carries a sense of urgency, that acknowledges, fondles, handles the edge and articulates the mystery and terror of that encounter."
"I write about what I encounter, have encountered, what I wish to encounter. A poem is often jolted into being by a simple scene on a street, on the bus, an overheard piece of conversation, a memory, smell, sound. My work is very visual and associative, and my poems often begin in one place and go to several unexpected places before they end. The work is often based on some version of reality (that is, real events), but I take license and believe in the fiction, and I believe that "
Carol Potter is divorced. She has two children: Jessame Hannus, Amy Hannus.