The Old Folks Call It God's Country

Carol Parris Krauss weaves stories of North Carolina and South Carolina through various people and places. Her poems are a glimpse into the place the Old Folk's call "God's Country." From looking outside her grandparent's home in Brevard, North Carolina to recounting her sister's journey to a cottage at Pawleys Island, the reader can travel with her on this journey of recognition and recollection.

"Carol Krauss' poems are authentic, multifaceted stories of being born and raised in the Carolinas. ...[her] warm, down to earth storytelling is interspersed throughout with startling imagery which makes each poem in this collection a delight to read. From her grandparents' house that was thumb-smashed into the side of a mountain to the sour breath fog of a hurricane that rears back its head and roars, her words provide a unique view of a physical landscape that is in her blood."

-Beth Dulin, writer & editor

"These allusive poems, with references to Jane Kenyon and Eudora Welty, create a kind of liminal space, a pause for reflection between a little girl's miserable corrective shoes and an older woman's sore hip. Carol Krauss can see bullets in red rubber pencil erasers, but also finds grace on mountain tops and a cruise downtown to the old Courthouse. I call shotgun!"

-Christine Potter, author of Unforgetting, Sheltering in Place and The Bean Books series

"Carol Krauss paints a family history that intersects with the beauty and dangers of the natural world. Each poem offers a story to us, full of the wisdom gained from the small hurricanes we live through together."

-Michael Jon Khandelwal, executive director, The Muse Writers Center