James Applewhite's poetry concerns the tension implicit in the relationships between language and landscape, past and present, childhood and maturity, and the rewards and limitations of his love for the narrative and family traditions of the South. Applewhite works within and against these dualities, writing in both traditional meters and free verse. An accomplished critic as well as a poet, he notes that his work is influenced by such diverse figures as William Wordsworth and Jackson Pollock.

Born on 8 August 1935 in Stantonsburg, North Carolina, to James W. and Jane Elizabeth (Mercer) Applewhite, James William Applewhite, Jr., was the elder of two sons in a farming family. At the age of seven he contracted rheumatic fever and spent a year in bed. His family situation has been characterized by his wife, the former Janis Forrest, as one of "overwhelming tension ... created by the juxtaposition of his father's strong, capable...