Lavonne J. Adams

Lavonne J. Adams is a published poet and writer living in Wilmington, North Carolina. Adams grew up in Norfolk, Virginia, but has called NC her home for over 30 years. Adams currently teaches and is the MFA Coordinator in the Department of Creative Writing at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.

Adams has three degrees from UNCW. She earned her BA in 1986, followed by her MA in English in 1992. In 1999, she earned her MFA in poetry, making her one of the first to graduate from UNCW's Creative Writing graduate program. During her time there, Adams studied with visiting Writer-in-Residence Philip Levine, who is now the United States Poet Laureate.

Adams' poems have been published in over fifty venues, including The Southern Poetry Review, Missouri Review, and Poet Lore. Her first published collection, a 36-page chapbook entitled Everyday Still Life, consists mostly of poems written during her time in graduate school. Her next chapbook, In the Shadow of the Mountain, was published five years later. centering on the deadly 1902 eruption of Mount Pelée, it contains many historically-based poems written from the point of view of locals before, during, and after the eruption. Adams' most recently published collection is Through the Glorieta Pass. This book contains historical poetry about the Santa Fe Trail in the time when pioneers were settling the Wild West, drawing upon journals and other records of pioneer, Hispanic, and Native American women. Adams traveled to gather additional information in Santa Fe, NM, and along what remains of the trail.

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