This Goodly Land

Sue Walker (April 6, 1939 or 1940–present)

Other Names Used

• Sue Brannan: adoptive name

Alabama Connections

• Foley, Baldwin County: childhood residence, brief adult residence
• Mobile, Mobile County: adult residence

Selected Works

• Walker, Sue Brannan. Traveling My Shadow. Mobile: Negative Capability Press, 1982.
• Walker, Sue. Shorings. Fullerton, Calif.: South Coast Press, 1992.
• Walker, Sue. The Appearance of Green. Troy, Maine: Nightshade Press, 1995.
• Walker, Sue. Blood Must Bear Your Name. Amherst, Mass.: Amherst Writers & Artists Press, 2002.
• Walker, Sue Brannan. It's Good Weather for Fudge: Conversing With Carson McCullers. Montgomery: NewSouth Books, 2003.
• Walker, Sue, and Dennis Holt. In the Realm of Rivers: Alabama's Mobile-Tensaw Delta. Montgomery: NewSouth Books for the Alabama Coastal Foundation, 2004.

Literary Awards

• Poet Laureate of Alabama, designated by the Alabama Writers' Conclave and comissioned by the Governor, 2003-2007

Biographical Information

Sue Walker grew up in Foley, Ala. She was introduced to poetry as a child when Walker's mother read to her while she recuperated after a tonsillectomy. Walker was the editor of her high school newspaper. After earning a BS in education at the University of Alabama, she returned to Foley to teach English at a local high school for a year. She then enrolled at Tulane University in New Orleans, earning an MEd and MA and PhD degrees in English literature. In the mid-1970s, Walker moved to Tampa, Fla., where her husband was employed.

Walker and her family returned to Alabama in 1979, moving to Mobile to be closer to Walker’s elderly parents. She spent the following year working as an editor of Alabama Sun magazine. In 1980, Walker began teaching at the University of South Alabama, where she served as chair of the English department from 1997 to 2008. In 1981, she founded the literary journal Negative Capability. Shortly thereafter, she started a small publishing house called Negative Capability Press. Walker has published poems and essays in literary journals, as well as scholarly papers. She has also edited collections of poems and essays by other writers. Walker served as Alabama’s Poet Laureate from 2003 to 2007. She was named Stokes Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing at the University of South Alabama in 2008.

Interests and Themes

Frequent subjects of Sue Walker’s poetry include family relationships, sickness and healing, and the natural world.

For More Information

Please check your local library for these materials. If items are not available locally, your librarian can help you borrow them through the InterLibrary Loan program. Your librarian can also help you find other information about this author.

There may be more information available through the databases in the Alabama Virtual Library. If you are an Alabama citizen, AVL can be used at your public library or school library media center. You can also get a username and password from your librarian to use AVL at home.

Reference Articles

• Robertson, Brewster Milton. "Sue Walker: Renaissance Woman". First Draft Summer. 2002: 15-16.

Reference Web Sites

• Sue Brannan Walker: Poet Laureate of Alabama. 2006. http://www.suebwalker.com/.

Photo courtesy of Sue Brannan Walker.

Last updated on May 30, 2008.