University of North Carolina at Asheville
D. Hiden Ramsey Library
Special Collections

Grace DiSanto
(1924-1993)

Southern Appalachian Writers Collection

M2005.05.02-08

 

 

 
Title Grace DiSanto
Creator Southern Highlands Research Center
Alt. Creator D. H. Ramsey Library
Identifier http://toto.lib.unca.edu/findingaids/mss/southern_appalachian_writers/disanto_grace/disanto_grace.htm
Subject Keyword Grace DiSanto ; Southern Appalachian Writers ; Appalachia
Subject LCSH DiSanto, Grace, 1924 - 1993
American literature
Appalachian Region, Southern -- Description and travel
Description The collection contains letters of correspondence, ephemera, a photograph, book jackets, newspaper clippings, and anecdotal information on the writer.  These materials were gathered as part of an exhibition of Southern Appalachian Writers held at UNCA in the early 1980's and sponsored by D. H. Ramsey Library and the Southern Highlands Research Center.
Publisher D. H. Ramsey Library, Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Asheville 28804
Contributor Annette Hatley
Date 2005-08-23
Type Collection ; text ; photograph ; audio recording
Format 1 folder ; text ; image
Source M2005.05.04-8
Language English
Relation The Heritage of Western North Carolina, D. H. Ramsey Library, Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Asheville 
Coverage 1900's - present ; North Carolina ;
Rights Any display, publication, or public use must credit the D. H. Ramsey Library, Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Asheville. Copyright retained by the creators of certain items in the collection, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.  Some materials in collections are electronic rights only. Please ask for assistance from Special Collections staff.
Donor 240
Acquisition  2004-03-
Citation Grace DiSanto in Southern Appalachian Writers Collection, D. H. Ramsey Library, Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Asheville 28804
Processed by Special Collections staff,  2005
Last update 2008-09-010
Statement on writing "...Not often as I would like, some poems tear out of me whole, in one piece.  Mostly, middle of the night, I bolt Lazaruslike out of sleep and eagerly reach for pen and notebook to begin the race to let fingers keep up with brain so I do not lose a word.  Some of my most exciting poems have comet his way.

Generally, poems, at least my poems, happen only because of hard, hard work.  Constant pruning, constant changing, manipulation.  Demanding work, but finally when a poem is right (though sometimes after publication I see ways to revise and do so in subsequent printings) I feel like a wordtamer, standing outside, who has whipped every word to bounce, leap and sit exactly right in the ring of that page."
Biography

Born in Derby, Connecticut in 1924, Grace DiSanto made journalism her career, writing throughout the 1940s and 1950s for the Australian Associated Press, as well as a handful of Connecticut newspapers.  In 1961, she and her family relocated to Morganton, North Carolina where, a few years later, she would enroll in the English department first at Western Piedmont Community College, then Belmont Abbey College (where she received her B.A. in English), and finally in graduate poetry classes at UNC-Greensboro under the guidance of Fred Chappell.  Her poems appeared in literary magazines throughout the region, culminating in the 1981 publication of her book The Eye is Single.  She died in 1993.
Bibliography BOOKS BY

1981

 The Eye Is Single.  Davidson, NC: Briarpatch Press, 1981.