Cast of Characters by Teresa McLamb Blackmon

“Characters in literature introduced me to theatre long before I saw a curtain rise on the stage.  They taught me to dream and discover parts of myself I’d not yet ascertained.  Fictional people jump from the page to our minds and hearts forever, often leaving us wanting to know more about them than their authors scripted.  Teresa Blackmon’s provocative Cast of Characters takes us on a fascinating, poetic exploration into the psyche and drama of some of our favorite literary roles.  And again, as we learn more about these characters, we unearth new truths about ourselves.”

–Eric Woodall, CSA, SDC. Broadway Actor/Director/Casting Director. North Carolina Theatre Producing Artistic Director.

“In Cast of Characters, Teresa McLamb Blackmon draws characters from literary works to make poems simultaneously humorous and serious.  “Stupid Poem” draws on “The Red Wheelbarrow” to loosen the Williams image in a dialogue between teacher and student.  “Measurements” uses Eliot’s Prufrock to allow the “I” to say “At sixty-six, my years are measured” not by spoons but things like “a muffin tin.” Cast of Characters is just plain fun.

—The author of Country, Shelby Stephenson was poet laureate of North Carolina, 2015-2018.

“What a gift! These poems! Teresa Blackmon gives us a landscape, a life of many lives AND literature.  Blackmon is a poet who knows her native North Carolina soil that stains her fingers and her soul with the riches of words and wisdom.  She is a TRUE poet of the heart.  Read and savor her words.  Let them linger, reread and take them into your life. Bravo, Blackmon of Benson, bravo!

–Ruth Moose was on the creative writing faculty at UNC-CH for fifteen years.  She retired and moved back to Albemarle where she grew up.  Her latest book is from St. Andrews University Press, The Goings on at Glen Arbor Acres, available on Amazon.