Shelby Stephenson grew up on a small farm near Benson, in the Coastal Plain of North Carolina.  After leaving the farm for college, he graduated from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, University of Pittsburgh, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He taught English at the University of North Carolina-Pembroke and edited Pembroke Magazine for more than 30 years before retiring.  North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory named him state poet laureate, taking office in February 2015.   The state of North Carolina presented him with the 2001 North Carolina Award in Literature.  He has received the Zoe Kincaid Brockman Memorial Award, North Carolina Writers’ Network Chapbook Prize, Bright Hill Press Chapbook Award, and the Brockman-Campbell Poetry Prize.  In addition to Family Matters:  Homage to July, the Slave Girl, he has published a poetic documentary Plankhouse (with photographs by Roger Manley), Middle Creek Poems, Carolina Shout!, Finch’s Mash, The Persimmon Tree Carol, Poor People, Greatest Hits, Fiddledeedee, and Possum. With his wife Linda he has made three musical CDs Hank Williams Tribute; Stephenson Brothers & Linda Sing the Old Songs; When Country Was Country.  Shelby and Linda live on the farm where he was born.