Dorothy Perry Thompson

Dorothy Perry Thompson, who as a young writer found herself referred to as "The Bard of Wheeler Hill" (the Columbia neighborhood where she grew up and which figures so prominently in her poetry), authored three books of poems--Fly with the Puffin (1995), Priest in Aqua Boa (2001), and Hurrying the Spirit: Following Zora (2002)--and editor of an anthology, Out of the Rough: Women's Poems of Survival and Celebration. A professor of English at Winthrop University, she often addressed in her work the pain and joy of being a mother, wife, and teacher. Characterized as "animated by a vibrantly sensual language," her poetry has also been described as resonating with "her love affair with music and dance and color and rhythm and movement and laughter." In 2001, Dot Thompson was among those nominated for the office of Poet Laureate of South Carolina.