Carol Jean Hamilton was born on August 24th, 1935 in Enid, Oklahoma. Her mother, Ruby Barber, was also a poet and a professor at Rose State College and Midwest City High School.[3] Hamilton graduated Midwest City High School in 1953, received her bachelor's degree from Phillips University in 1956, and later a master's degree from the University of Central Oklahoma.[4][2] She taught at Midwest City Del City schools, Rose State College, and the University of Central Oklahoma.[4] She helped found the Woody Guthrie Poets in 2004.[2]
Her book Once the Dust published by Broncho Press was a 1992 Oklahoma Book Award winner.[4] She won the 1987 and 1992 Byline Literary award for "The Summary" and "In the Distance," respectively.[5] She was nominated five times for a Pushcart Prize.[6] Her work has been published in many journals, including Christian Science Monitor, Christian Century, Arizona Quarterly,[3]Quartet, The Prairie Poet, Encounter, Audit, Discourse, Quoin, New Campus Review, Roanoke Review, and Cimarron Review.[7] Her poem "Patterns" appears in the 1983 anthology Peace: A Poetry Anthology created as a fundraiser for the Benedictine Peace House.[8]
