A wide gaze from a young poet

Published on August 3, 2016

“I am irrevocably in love with the world: human beings, jazz music dancing with the breeze, art museums, conversations about religion in a rickety van, German shepherds, creek whispers heard from the tent, plants, the laughter of a child with disabilities passing me a basketball, wool socks.”

Incoming first-year student McKenna Ritter received the 2016 Thomas Wolfe Scholarship to come to Carolina. The young poet hopes that someday “in the chaos of it all, my writing will mean something to someone.”

This is story number 123 in the Carolina Stories 225th Anniversary Edition magazine.

The Thomas Wolfe Scholarship Program was established in 2001 with a gift to UNC’s College of Arts and Sciences from alumnus Frank Borden Hanes Sr. of Winston-Salem. It honors Carolina graduate Thomas Wolfe, best known for his 1929 novel, Look Homeward, Angel.

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