Poet Cathy Smith Bowers has made a career of nudging writers along and giving them the courage to write the poems they’ve always wanted to write.

A South Carolina native and award-winning author of three poetry collections, Bowers says she grew up poor and never had any mentoring in her early years as a writer. That’s why she wants to help writers get the attention and guidance they need.

“That’s why I love working with these young people,” she says. Before imparting advice, she thinks to herself, “What do I wish somebody had said to me?”

Bowers and a trio of her students will be giving a reading on the last day of the Western Carolina University Literary Festival — at noon on Thursday, April 10, in the University Center’s theatre — as part of the North Carolina Poetry Society’s Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poet Series.

Bowers, who is one of three North Carolina Distinguished Poets in the Gilbert-Chappell program, is paired up with emerging student poets in Western North Carolina. She reads and critiques their work, suggests writing exercises, and helps them to find their own unique voice.

This year, her students include Caleb Beissert a junior at Western Carolina; Tom Lambert of Watauga High School in Boone; and Haley Jones of North Iredell Middle School.

Over the course of three months — February, March and April — Bowers asked the three poets to submit four pages per month to her. In telephone conversations, she critiqued their work and suggested mini-lessons to try their hand at focusing on a particular element in their writing. Then, for the WCU Literary Festival, these poets will be able to read their work to a wider audience.

For emerging writers, having the chance to work with an established writer can be just the kind of motivation that inspires a career in writing — something like a master’s class.

For Bowers, it’s chance to hone her own skills.

“More than challenging, it’s surprising and delightful,” Bowers says. “I really want it to be a substantial experience with them.”

She’s been especially pleased with middle schooler Haley Jones, a young writer who takes instruction quite well and incorporates suggestions to improve her work almost immediately.

“She’s just sort of new to all of this,” Bowers says.

Her suggestions tend to start with general comments (the types of subjects being chosen, for example) and then hone in on particulars (specific word choices, for example). In some cases with young writers, there’s a tendency to emulate a favorite writer’s style — Frost or T.S. Eliot, for instance. Bowers encourages writers to keep that passion for words but also broaden skill levels. A rhyming poet who feels comfortable with a formal verse style can get trapped in a pattern of writing the same kinds of poems over and over again.

“Your strength is also your weakness,” Bowers explains.

That doesn’t mean you have to deny yourself the need to rhyme; it just means you can try different ways to rhyme — moving from sing-song, four-lined stanzas to villanelles (as with Dylan Thomas’ “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night”) or the terza rima (three-lined rhymes made famous by Dante’s Divine Comedy). Or perhaps a more contemporary voice can lend a fresh perspective to an old, time-honored technique.

The Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poetry Series — named after former N.C. Poetry Society President Marie Gilbert and former N.C. Poet Laureate and Canton native Fred Chappell — is designed to match up a distinguished poet from the eastern, central and western regions of the state with a middle school, high school and college student. Home-schooled students are also eligible to participate. After working one-on-one with the poet, the student presents at least one local reading at a local library, bookstore or festival. The Distinguished Poets are also invited to read at the Weymouth Center for the Arts & Humanities in Southern Pines as part of the Sam Ragan Writing Series. For more information, go to www.sleepycreek.org/poetry/dpsguidelines.htm or contact the western region’s committee chairperson, Mary Adams, at madams@email.wcu.edu.