Blurbs & Praise

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Willie Carver, award-winning teacher and truth-teller, has written a memoir of narrative poems that poignantly explore his experience as a gay man in Appalachia. Through food, religion, heartache, and a bone-deep love for the hollers, the hills, and the people. These poems hold your gaze and your ear.

~Crystal Wilkinson, Kentucky Poet Laureate, author of Perfect Black

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Willie Carver is a humane and necessary voice from the hills of Kentucky. He writes with stunning insight, vivid imagery, and enormous courage. This is a powerful book that should be read by everyone

.~Chris Offutt, author of Country Dark

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One of the most quintessentially Appalachian books I have ever read. Gay Poems for Red States is destined to be a cornerstone of the pantheon of books describing what’s it like to grow up queer in this country during this time in history….for those having trouble being seen and those having trouble seeing, this book is a blueprint for their shared survival. The love embodied in Carver’s voice will set off tambourines in your heart.

~Robert Gipe, author of Pop

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In Gay Poems for Red States, Willie Carver extends grace in two directions: back to the child he was, and forward to the queer young people living in rural places today. Through poems that explore the relationships and dynamics that shaped his identity, Carver creates a mirror for queer youth―the kind of mirror he never had. The kind of mirror we all need in order to find our way into our truest expressions of self.

~Neema Avashia, author of Another Appalachia: Coming Up Queer and Indian in a Mountain Place

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Prepare your heart and soul along with your humanity and intellect to feel and be seen by this book. Each line of this incredible text allows the reader to, like his love Josh says, ‘find beauty just by expecting it.’ Carver reminds us of the gentle yet fighting spirit in us all and why we must keep building a joyous and just world where every student and educator not only belongs but thrives. Oh, how I wish for a world where all students are lucky enough to have an educator like Mr. Carver.

~Juliana Urtubey, 2021 National Teacher of the Year and White House committee member of the Advisory Commission on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity for Hispanics

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The raw emotion of Willie’s words paint a vivid and realistic picture of the life many of us gay folks face each and every day as we strive to transform the minds of our neighbors, families, friends, and communities in the red states we call home. This is a must read for our community, but also anyone who considers themselves an ally. To hear these stories is to know us, to grieve with us, and to boldly advocate for change so that those who come after us might have a life that’s just a bit easier than ours.

~Jed Dearybury, author of The Playful Life: The Power of Play in Our Everyday

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Gay Poems for Red States will be a centerpiece at my Equity-Driven BookShop. Willie’s gorgeous personality shines brightly and the methods he uses to communicate the impact of his intersecting identities is inspiring and insightful. His ingenious use of literary devices both provokes and comforts the reader. He somehow manages to be paradoxically vulnerable and whimsical at the same time and I can’t get enough of his writing. Beautiful. Authentic. Compelling. An incredible work of art. 

~Kelly D. Holstine, Minnesota State Teacher of the Year and owner of WordHaven BookHouse

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Willie Edward Taylor Carver Jr.’s poetry collection is a celebration of the awkwardness of growing up queer and poor.

These autobiographical, narrative poems focus on Carver’s coming-of-age in rural Kentucky. They track his religious anxieties, the area’s homophobia, and acts toward finding acceptance wherever he could, often from teachers. Some poems also depict Carver’s relationships with important people in his life, including his brother, his father, and the man who became his husband.

Although the content of the collection is often grim, it is treated with beauty and humor. “Cornmeal and Water Pancakes” is about a family too poor to afford pancake ingredients, whose mother decides to recreate the dish with the titular ingredients: “[Mother] loved the cornmeal and water / with her hands until / it agreed to stay together…. / [it] agreed against all laws of physics / to softly brown.” Rejoicing in the moment, the poem switches to a lyrical register with the unexpected redefinition of “love”; its tone becomes lighthearted as it addresses the impossibility of the dish.

The collection makes effective use of formal poetic devices, and its entries reward close reading. In “Creek,” a poem about living in a trailer, Carver writes, “hog bacon was the kind we killed ourselves. / I killed myself / to leave the holler / and bought pink store pork.” The repeated “killed” juxtaposition makes the second use surprising and dangerous. This emotion is compounded by the enjambment, which turns the phrase “I killed myself” claustrophobic compared to the long line that preceded it. By choosing store-bought pork, Carver is conforming to society, thereby “killing” his self-identity.

The poems collected in Gay Poems for Red States center a poor, queer Southern youth who’s struggling to survive; they seek moments of solace.

~see full review at Foreword Reviews

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Gay Poems for Red States possesses a defiant, resilient voice which resounds loudly above the cacophony of hate and backlash permeating discriminatory legislative decisions. Even though it is not overtly a protest collection, this book stands in solidarity against discrimination with other LGBTQ-focused works such as KB Brookins’ Freedom House. The poems also celebrate a place otherwise associated with oppression, racism and discrimination, uplifting the healing aspects of a misunderstood natural landscape historically and greedily stripped of its resources. Gay Poems for Red States is immediate and necessary, and it emerges at a critical point in education, society and publishing.

~see full review at Southern Review of Books

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[Carver’s] collection Gay Poems for Red States presents the harsh realities of being a gay man during this time of rising hatred towards LGBTQIA+ teachers across Appalachia and the rest of America. Simultaneously, Carver’s poems are an outpouring of love for a place that doesn’t love him back. Carver conveys such tenderness for Appalachian culture and the rural communities that raised him.

~Kendra Winchester, Book Riot