Betty Adcock


Elizabeth "Betty" Sharp Adcock is an American poet and a 2002-2003 Guggenheim Fellow. Author of six poetry collections, she has served as a faculty member in the Warren Wilson College MFA Program for Writers in Asheville, NC and in the Writer-in-Residence program at Meredith College in Raleigh, NC. She has also held residencies at Lenoir-Rhyne College, Kalamazoo College, and Duke University, and has twice served as Visiting Distinguished Professor at North Carolina State University.

Life

The daughter of a landowner and a schoolteacher, Adcock grew up in San Augustine, TX, a small farming community. The landscape of the area, a mix of West and Deep South, influenced her work. She moved to North Carolina after her marriage to Donald Adcock. The two have a daughter, Sylvia.
Adcock is primarily self-taught. She has no degrees, though she attended Texas Tech University, Goddard College, and North Carolina State University. She studied and wrote poetry for more than ten years while working in the business world. After her first book was published, she was awarded a teaching residency at Duke University. Other teaching positions followed, most notably her ongoing position as Writer in Residence at Meredith College, which she held until 2006.

Poetry collections

Adcock's poetry collections include the following:
Adcock's awards include the following: