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NORTH CAROLINA L I T E R A R Y RE V I E W
Winter 2022
2021 JAMES APPLEWHITE POETRY PRIZE FINALIST BY GWEN PRIEST
More Than a Haircut Yesterday my child was a girl, all pigtails, dimples, bows, stolen powder-pink lipstick smeared on her freckled face. Today they are new. The name we fought over in the birthing center left behind in a chat room. Today they are brave, telling me their greatest fear: that finding themself might mean losing me – Losing friends, family, God. There is so much to lose, not just a name or symbol, but a life when change demands its turn.
GWEN PRIEST is an award-winning poet, author, and editor. Her essays, poetry, and short stories can be found in several anthologies and in the Remington Review, Southeast Review, and NCLR (a 2018 finalist in this competition, published under the name Gwen Holt in the 2019 print issue). Her latest YA novels have been published with Owl Hollow Press. She currently lives in North Carolina and teaches high school English and Poetry at Longleaf School of the Arts.
