Byron Hoot was born into a family of ministers, raised in a minister’s home and stayed in West Virginia until he went to college.  The influence of church, his parents, the hymns, the sermons, the people, the questions raised and later answered cannot be understated.  

Hoot earned a BA from Nazarene colleges, a Master’s in American Literature from West Virginia University, and completed course work toward a PhD from the University of Maryland.  He was once married and worked in the world of business.  He has four children and five grandchildren.  He lives “far from the madding crowd.”

He’s hunted since his mid-twenties and fished for the last handful of years.  Is as comfortable in the woods as he is reading poetry, sitting at a bar, sitting in church.  The woods have shaped him as much as anything else. His discipline is daily writing and reading for over forty years.  And now he offers Hoot’n’Howl Poetry:  an extension of himself.

On this site, you’ll discover a range of manuscripts from religious musings to a COVID-19 flash chapbook to light, fun observations like Observations from Detached Retina Eyes (a pocket-sized book). And t-shirts with Hootisms: “I always want to be a beginner so I don’t have to complete anything.”  And readings of his poetry by none other than himself. 

Welcome to a celebration of language, an exploration of experiences, a vison prismed with the intent, if one is to be given, to remind us of our divine humanity, the brevity of life, the richness of love, the beauty of this world and that we “have but one life to live.”  And if we can make it better than yesterday, that’s pretty damn good.