Darlene O'Dell
Asheville, North Carolina
Biography
Darlene O’Dell is a writer and photographer living in Asheville, NC. Her photographs and haiga have been published in National Catholic Reporter, San Antonio Review, Meat for Tea, Contemporary Haibun, MacQueen’s Quinterly, Café Haiku, Sonic Boom, Wales Haiku Journal and are exhibited this fall at Art on 1st in Roanoke, VA. Her photographs marking the first anniversary of Hurricane Helene are currently exhibited at her sister’s studio Blue Spirit in Spartanburg, SC. She is the author of The Story of the Philadelphia Eleven (Church Publishing, 2014, 2024), Sites of Southern Memory (UVA Press, 2001), Raised in the World of Everyday Poets (chapbook, Yavanika Press, 2023), and Main Street (chapbook, Yavanika Press, 2025), among other works.
Artist's Statement
final bell
"This old school is located in a small Western North Carolina town deep in the Appalachian Mountains. Though my ancestors left the area in the early 20th century, I visit the town once in a blue moon. I took this photo in 2023. In 2024, the building was nearly destroyed by flood waters from Hurricane Helene. (published in Contemporary Haibun Online, December 2022)"
November sun
"My great-great grandparents were part of a group that built this rural church in South Carolina. Even though my sister was instrumental in restoring it, I couldn’t help but think that too many stories were left untold—and too many others left unresolved. (published in Wales Haiku Journal, Winter 2021-2022)"
plastic pirouette
"My grandmothers worked at Monarch Mill in South Carolina, one when she was only a child—even though she had made straight A’s in school. The other was valedictorian of her small, rural school. After her death, we found these medallions in her jewelry box."
flying
"When my sisters and I were young, our father would occasionally read poetry to us after Sunday dinner. I don’t know that 'Casey at the Bat' was necessarily his favorite, but it was the one he read with the most animation. I came across this baseball on an old practice field, and I would have sworn I heard a distant roar. (published in Contemporary Haibun Online, August 2022; chosen for publication in Contemporary Haibun 18) "
Eden’s memory
"I walked up on this scene on one of those spring days that feels fairytale-like. Intentional Camera Movement photography seemed the only appropriate way to attempt to represent it. (published in MacQueen’s Quinterly, April 2025)"
sundown
"Recently, I became interested in the Depression-era photographers hired by the Farm Security Administration. Unlike Dorothea Lange, many of these photographers did not achieve fame, though their bodies of work are artistically and historically significant. Studying this photograph by Marion Post Wolcott, I had the feeling that someone was missing from the scene and that her absence fell over everything in the photograph, even over the light of the setting sun. (published in Contemporary Haibun, August 2023)"
spring
"As with sundown, this image is archived in the Farm Security Administration’s collection at the Library of Congress. In 1940, the photographer Jack Delano took the photograph of the Dumond Sisters of Maine. I thought the light and shadows suggested two different seasons, so I had some fun with the homonym spring. (Contemporary Haibun, August 2023)"
Darlene O’Dell is a writer and photographer living in Asheville, NC. Her photographs and haiga have been published in National Catholic Reporter, San Antonio Review, Meat for Tea, Contemporary Haibun, MacQueen’s Quinterly, Café Haiku, Sonic Boom, Wales Haiku Journal and are exhibited this fall at Art on 1st in Roanoke, VA. Her photographs marking the first anniversary of Hurricane Helene are currently exhibited at her sister’s studio Blue Spirit in Spartanburg, SC. She is the author of The Story of the Philadelphia Eleven (Church Publishing, 2014, 2024), Sites of Southern Memory (UVA Press, 2001), Raised in the World of Everyday Poets (chapbook, Yavanika Press, 2023), and Main Street (chapbook, Yavanika Press, 2025), among other works.
Artist's Statement
final bell
"This old school is located in a small Western North Carolina town deep in the Appalachian Mountains. Though my ancestors left the area in the early 20th century, I visit the town once in a blue moon. I took this photo in 2023. In 2024, the building was nearly destroyed by flood waters from Hurricane Helene. (published in Contemporary Haibun Online, December 2022)"
November sun
"My great-great grandparents were part of a group that built this rural church in South Carolina. Even though my sister was instrumental in restoring it, I couldn’t help but think that too many stories were left untold—and too many others left unresolved. (published in Wales Haiku Journal, Winter 2021-2022)"
plastic pirouette
"My grandmothers worked at Monarch Mill in South Carolina, one when she was only a child—even though she had made straight A’s in school. The other was valedictorian of her small, rural school. After her death, we found these medallions in her jewelry box."
flying
"When my sisters and I were young, our father would occasionally read poetry to us after Sunday dinner. I don’t know that 'Casey at the Bat' was necessarily his favorite, but it was the one he read with the most animation. I came across this baseball on an old practice field, and I would have sworn I heard a distant roar. (published in Contemporary Haibun Online, August 2022; chosen for publication in Contemporary Haibun 18) "
Eden’s memory
"I walked up on this scene on one of those spring days that feels fairytale-like. Intentional Camera Movement photography seemed the only appropriate way to attempt to represent it. (published in MacQueen’s Quinterly, April 2025)"
sundown
"Recently, I became interested in the Depression-era photographers hired by the Farm Security Administration. Unlike Dorothea Lange, many of these photographers did not achieve fame, though their bodies of work are artistically and historically significant. Studying this photograph by Marion Post Wolcott, I had the feeling that someone was missing from the scene and that her absence fell over everything in the photograph, even over the light of the setting sun. (published in Contemporary Haibun, August 2023)"
spring
"As with sundown, this image is archived in the Farm Security Administration’s collection at the Library of Congress. In 1940, the photographer Jack Delano took the photograph of the Dumond Sisters of Maine. I thought the light and shadows suggested two different seasons, so I had some fun with the homonym spring. (Contemporary Haibun, August 2023)"
