Home to extraordinary writers such as William Styron, Tom Wolfe, and Ellen Glasgow, the state of Virginiaâs literary past is among the most prolific in the nation. Indeed, this state, with its beautiful and varied ecosystemsâAppalachia, Chesapeake Bay, the Shenandoah Valley, and Virginiaâs beautiful beaches, just to name a fewâseem to serve as the landscapes from which equally varied and nutritive writers spring, from the lyrical, often ecstatic meditations of Charles Wright to the poignant, dynamic narratives and lyrics of Ellen Bryant Voigt, from the moving narratives of Rita Dove to the formal mastery and wit of R. T. Smith. Series Editor William Wright, along with Volume Editors J. Bruce Fuller, Jesse Graves, and Amy Wright, have collaborated to bring readers a wide-ranging survey in The Southern Poetry Anthology, Volume IX: Virginia. This volume seeks to emphasize the uniqueness of the poetic voices of Virginia. In doing so, the editors have acknowledged and included many celebrated writers from the recent past as well as relatively new, diverse voices that reiterate the literary fecundity of one of the most beautiful, revered, and complicated states in the American South.