Governor's Circumvention 'Could Be Good Thing,' Says Network Director

This could be a good thing, in the long run," says Ed Southern, executive director of the North

Carolina Writers Network. He's talking about Gov. Pat McCrory's circumvention of standard

procedure in appointing the current poet laureate.

Such a bad thing could ever be a good thing?

"How often does poetry get this much press?" he asks. "How often does the poet laureate? Now, no one who's paying a lick of attention can claim not to know that we have used an effective process for selecting our poet laureate, that the laureate position is necessary and vital and much more than ceremonial, that poetry itself is necessary and vital and much more than pretty words, or that we have a community of writers in this state who will stand up and be heard.

"The bad thing would've been if this selection (or any new laureate) was met with a collective shrug."