“S” is for Sinclair, Bennie Lee [1939-2000]. Novelist, poet. A Greenville native, Sinclair published her first poem at the age of six. The overwhelming critical praise and attention cause her to stop writing for a number of years. In 1986 she was appointed the state’s fifth poet laureate, a position she held for the remainder of her life. She taught writing at Furman and conducted poetry workshops at Notre Dame, Western Carolina, and Brevard College. For twenty-eight years she taught in the schools of South Carolina through the Arts Commission’s Artist-in-Residence program. Additionally she taught poetry at the Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities. Bennie Lee Sinclair composed Coastal Carolina’s alma mater and wrote poems for formal state occasions, most notably for Governor Jim Hodges’s inauguration—a poem that also celebrated the end of the millennium.
“S” is for Sinclair, Bennie Lee
