South Carolina State Poet Laureate

Bennie Lee Sinclair

1939-2000

Adopted in 1934.

Bennie Lee Sinclair (Mrs. Don Lewis), Greenville County native writer and poet whose subjects are the people and places of the countryside she has known all her life, has been appointed to serve as South Carolina's Poet Laureate for life by Governor Richard W. Riley in 1986 , under authority of Joint Resolution No. 736 of 1934. She is the state's fifth poet laureate; the first was Archibald Rutledge, who served from 1934 to 1973. She is the author of two volumes of poetry, Little Chicago Suite , and The Arrowhead Scholar.

For much of her career, Ms. Sinclair has taught poetry "from kindergarten to 80" through South Carolina. Arts Commission programs and the Governor's School for the Arts. She has published four books of poetry: Little Chicago Suite, The Arrowhead Scholar, Lord of Springs and The Endangered. She has published short stories, been included in Best American Short Stories and published a novel, The Lynching, based on South Carolina's last lynching, in 1947.

Mrs. Sinclair has edited two volumes: Taproots: A Study in Cultural Exploration and The Fine Arts Story; a textbook, A Creative Guide to Writing; and was co-author of International Greenville: A Guide. She is in the final stages of preparing her first novel for publication. Sinclair's writing awards include a Stephen Vincent Benét Narrative Poem Award, a "Best American Short Stories" Citation, a South Carolina Writers' Award and special recognition from the South Carolina Society of Professional Journalists. She has taught writing at Furman University and workshops at Notre Dame, Western Carolina University and Brevard College. Since 1972 she has worked with the South Carolina Arts Commission's Artists-in-the-Schools program and is writer-in residence at the South Carolina Governor's School.

The Coastal Carolina University Alma Mater was written in 1994 by Bennie Lee Sinclair, Poet Laureate of South Carolina, to commemorate the first year of the institution's status as a university.

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