Cracker Barrel poetry

Susan Yount was raised on a farm in Southern Indiana, now lives in Chicago, and once worked at a Cracker Barrel somewhere in between. Yount, who earned first place in the 16th Annual Poetry Center of Chicago Juried Reading, writes about basically everything –cows, the AP, her Pilsen neighborhood–and the Chicago Sun-Times has taken special notice:

She is the brightest new voice on Chicago’s poetry scene because of her keen sense of economy. Yount does not waste words. She has carried the soul of the country into her city life.

Nowak, director of the Rose O’Neill Literary House in Chestertown, Md., was impressed with Yount’s feeling for the hard times of today.

“A number of contributions addressed the history of poetry,” Nowak explained in a phone interview. “But her work was not only about poetry but it was poems about the new economy. There were references of paying bills, service sector work like sending out Fed Exes. It was someone who was pushing to talk about everyday work experiences. That jumped out at me.”