Ron Rash (Saturday Banquet Keynote)
Ron Rash’s family has lived in the southern Appalachian mountains since the mid-1700s, and it is this region that is the primary focus of his writing. He grew up in Boiling Springs, North Carolina, and graduated from Gardner-Webb College and Clemson University. He holds the John Parris Chair in Appalachian Cultural Studies at Western Carolina University.
Rash is the author of 11 books to date: The Night The New Jesus Fell to Earth (short stories), Casualties (short stories), Chemistry and Other Stories (short stories), Burning Bright (short stories), Eureka Mill (poetry), and Among the Believers (poetry), Raising the Dead (poetry), One Foot in Eden (novel), Saints at the River (novel), The World Made Straight (2006), and Serena (2008).
Rash draws inspiration from author Thomas Hardy because of his emphasis on the deep connection between landscape and people. As Rash explains it, “If you have that kind of intimacy with the landscape, you can bring the place more intensely to the reader’s mind.”
He credits his grandfather with teaching him the magic of language and the power of storytelling. When writing a novel, Rash focuses on a single image as his starting point and uses it to fashion a complex storyline. For Rash, the image contains the story and it is his job as a writer to discover it.
In 1994, Rash was awarded an NEA Poetry Fellowship, and he won the Sherwood Anderson Prize in 1996. In 2001, he won the Novella Festival Novel Award, and in 2002, he received the Foreword Magazine’s Gold Medal in Literary Fiction for One Foot in Eden. The novel was also named Appalachian Book of the Year.
His second novel, Saints at the River, was named Fiction Book of the Year by both the Southern Book Critics Circle and the Southeastern Booksellers Association. For this novel, he received the 2004 Weatherford Award for Fiction, the Southern Book Critics Circle Award for best novel, and the 2005 SEBA Best Book Award for Fiction. In 2005, Rash won an O. Henry Award for his story “Speckled Trout” and received the James Still Award by the Fellowship of Southern Writers.
His new book of poetry Waking (Hub City Press 2011) will be released at the Carolina Mountains Literary Festival.
Audrey Niffenegger has lived in or near Chicago for most of her life. She published The Time Traveler’s Wife in 2003 with the independent publisher MacAdam/Cage. The novel won the Exclusive Books Boeke Prize in 2005 and the British Book Award for Popular Fiction in 2006. It was an international best seller, and has been made into a movie.
Niffenegger trained as a visual artist at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and received her MFA from Northwestern University’s De partment of Art Theory and Practice in 1991. She has exhibited her artist’s books, prints, paintings, drawings and Niffenegger taught book arts for many years as a professor in Columbia College’s MFA program in Interdisciplinary Book and Paper Arts. She has also taught for the Newberry Library, Penland School of Craft and other institutions of higher learning. Currently, Niffenegger is a faculty member at the North Shore Art League where she teaches the Intermediate & Advanced Printmaking Seminar. She gives lessons in letterpress printing, lithography, intaglio, fine edition book making, and lectures on visual narrative in addition to teaching the occasional drawing class. Niffenegger describes her own work as “narrative, figurative, strange, and quiet.”
She is also on the faculty of the Columbia College Fiction Writing Department. Niffenegger is also a founding member of the writing collective Text 3 (T3). Recent T3 endeavors include the litmag little Bang and some rather amusing dinner parties.
Niffenegger’s second novel, Her Fearful Symmetry, was published in 2009 by Scribner. In 2008 she made a serialized graphic novel for the London Guardian, The Night Bookmobile, which was published in book form in September, 2010. She is working on her third novel, The Chinchilla Girl in Exile. Her website.
Poetry Alive! Using poetry performance techniques, Poetry Alive empowers educators to improve student literacy. Poetry Alive helps students to self-actualize improvements in reading and writing. Carney Gray is an Asheville based actor and director working in film, video, commercial, industrial, voiceover, print, and the stage. Nationally, he has worked with Kentucky Shakespeare Festival in Louisville, the Contemporary American Theatre Company (CATCO) in Columbus, Ohio, Door Off Broadway in Door County, Wisconsin, Festival Theatre in St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin, among others. He also has extensive stage credits in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Carney holds an MFA in Theatre (Professional Actor Training Program) from The Ohio State University, as well as a BA in Theatre Arts from the University of Minnesota.
Michelle Schwantes is co-owner and president of Poetry Alive. She hails from Minneapolis, Minnesota. She has toured nationally with Boston Chamber Theatre, Climb Theatre and Giggle Poetry Theatre. She has also worked with Children's Theatre Company of Minneapolis, Gremlin Theatre, SteppingStone Theatre, Stages Theatre, the Minnesota Rennaissance Festival as well as many others. She has extensive experience working as an Actor/Educator, Director, Choreographer, Producer and Managing Director. She is also classically trained in ballet, tap and jazz dance.
The website of Poetry Alive!
Monika Schröder grew up in Germany and has worked as an elementary school teacher and librarian in American international schools in Egypt, Oman, Chile and India. Her first novel The Dog in the Wood (Front Street, 2009), set in east Germany at the end of World War II and based on her father's experience during the arrival of the Soviet Army in his village, was listed a VOYA Top Shelf Fiction for Middle School Readers. Her second novel for young readers, (Saraswati's Way, FSG 2010) tells the story of 12-year old Akash who runs away from his village in rural India and ends up as a street child in the New Delhi train station. Her forthcoming YA novel (My Brother's Shadow, FSG 2011) is set in Berlin 1918 during the last days of World War I. She recently moved to Mars Hill with her husband and their dog Frank. Visit her website at: www.monikaschroeder.com
 Brian Lee Knopp is the author of the bestselling memoir Mayhem in Mayberry: Misadventures of a P.I. in Southern Appalachia, which was featured on C-SPAN Book TV and UNC-TV, nominated as a 2009 Finalist for the SIBA (Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance) Nonfiction Award, and excerpted in Now & Then: The Appalachian Magazine. He is a former criminal defense investigator, private investigator, and professional sheep shearer with an M.A. degree in English Literature from the University of Texas at Austin. His book reviews and essays have been published in several regional magazines and local media. He teaches writing at UNCA/Great Smokies Writing Program and at Warren Wilson College.
Kevin McIlvoy has taught creative writing for over twenty-five years, and recently served as Interim Director of the MFA Program in Creative Writing at Warren Wilson College. He was Editor in Chief of the national literary magazine, Puerto del Sol at New Mexico State University, and has served on the Board of Directors of two national writing organizations, Council for Literary Magazines & Presses and the Association of Writers & Writing Programs. His published works include A Waltz, The Fifth Station, Little Peg, Hyssop, and The Complete History of New Mexico. He counts among his most significant mentors older writers who have attended his community classes.
Joseph Bathanti is a professor of creative writing & co-director of Appalachian State University's Visiting Writers Series. His collection of short stories, The High Heart, was chosen as the St. Andrews College (Laurinburg, N.C.) One Book, One Community 2008 Summer Reading Book. This year, he received the 100 Scholars Research Award given annually by ASU to recognize exemplary research or creative activities of a tenured faculty member. He's now writing the second novel in a trilogy that began with the novel, East Liberty, set in the nearly vanished little Italy in Pittsburgh where he grew up. His novel, Coventry, won the 2006 Novello Literary Award. His poetry collection, Land of Amnesia, was published by Press53. He is a recipient of the 2009–2010 North Carolina Arts Council Fellowship Award.
Alan Gratz is the author of one of the ALA's 2007 Top Ten Best Books for Young Adults, Samurai Shortstop (Dial 2006), and a 2008 ALA Quick Pick for Young Adult Readers, Something Rotten (Dial 2007). A sequel, Something Wicked (Dial 2008), now out in paperback. His latest book is The Brooklyn Nine (Dial 2009), a middle grade novel about family, baseball, and American history. He lives with his wife and daughter in Bakersville, North Carolina. Visit his website.
Britt Kaufmann lives in Burnsville, North Carolina with her husband and three elementary-aged children. Her poetry and prose have appeared in Binnacle, Kakalak Poetry Anthology (2007 & 2008), Main Street Rag, literarymama.com, Now & Then, WNC Woman, and WNC Magazine among others. Her first chapbook of poems, Belonging, was published in 2011 by Finishing Line Press and her play An Uncivil Union: The Battle of Burnsville was performed in June at the the Parkway Playhouse. She has served prominently on the planning committee of the Carolina Mountains Literary Festival for the last six years. Also, she hosts Eve's Night Out, a monthly open-mic poetry reading for women held in Burnsville. Her website.
Fred Sauceman is Senior Writer, Executive Assistant to the President for University Relations, and Associate Professor of Appalachian Studies at East Tennessee State University. He teaches a course entitled “The Foodways of Appalachia” and edits Now & Then: The Appalachian Magazine. He is the author of a three-volume book series, The Place Setting: Timeless Tastes of the Mountain South, from Bright Hope to Frog Level, about the foodways of Appalachia. He also writes a monthly food column, “Potluck,” for the Johnson City Press and his stories about food and Southern culture can be heard on “Inside Appalachia,” a radio program produced by West Virginia Public Broadcasting. His latest documentary, Beans All the Way: A Story of Pintos and Persistence, relates the history of The Bean Barn, a soup bean restaurant that originated in 1946 in Greeneville, Tennessee.
Brenda Lunsford Lilly works as a writer, college professor, and arts volunteer in Asheville. She and her husband were the recipients of Third Century Artist grants, which they used to form The ACT Company in Greensboro. Some of the plays the company produced included A Streetcar Named Desire and Elephant Sighs, the latter of which was featured at the 2006 Stoneleaf Festival. Lilly spent 27 years in Los Angeles working as a television writer and producer. In 1988, she and her husband founded The Occasional Theatre for the purpose of bringing professional, premiere productions of plays to audiences. After living in California, they moved back to North Carolina and based The Occasional Theatre in Asheville. They continue to produce original theatre and support emerging as well as journeyman playwrights.
Jim Clark is a musician and artist from Byrdstown, TN. He is currently Chair of the Department of English and Modern Language at Barton College in Wilson, NC. His literary works include two books of poems, Dancing on Canaan's Ruins and Handiwork, and a play titled The Girl with the Faraway Eye. His most recent book is Notions: A Jim Clark Miscellany. In 1995, he began combining his talents as a singer and musician with his abilities as a writer. This project resulted in Buried Land, a CD recorded in 2003, featuring original poems and traditional Appalachian folk music. His band, The Near Myths, recorded two other folk-rock albums: Wilson (2005) and Words to Burn (2008). His most recent CD is The Service of Song (2010), featuring musical settings of poems by Byron Herbert Reece. Visit his website.
Charles F. Price is the author of the Hiwassee series, four works of historical fiction set in his native Western North Carolina. The books comprise a single narrative cycle interweaving the partly imagined private history of his 19th-century ancestors with the public history of the Southern Appalachians. The series has garnered numerous awards and accolades, including the Sir Walter Raleigh Award as the best fiction of 1999 written by a North Carolina author and the Society of Historians' award to name a few. His most recent book is Nor the Battle to the Strong, a novel of the Revolutionary War in the South. He is currently a full-time writer and lives with his wife in Burnsville. charlesfprice.com
Zack Allen, author of the recently published, Eggtown and Other Stories, Burnsville resident and Asheville native says he is “way too busy” to be retired. Allen’s serial careers have taken him on a diverse odyssey. After college, he worked briefly as a chemist in synthetic fiber research before his talent for writing steered him toward a 20-year journey as a writer, editor and columnist (primarily for the Asheville Citizen-Times). He has published literally hundreds of articles in major newspapers, wire services, and, through syndication, in dozens of other publications around the world. His stories and columns have earned him many awards including being honored as the top columnist in the state for two years in a row by the North Carolina Press Association in the major newspapers category.
Abigail DeWitt has been teaching creative writing for twenty years. She has led workshops all over the U.S. and in Europe, and has taught at the Duke Writers' Workshop, Harvard University Summer School, Appalachian State University and UNC-Asheville. A firm believer that everyone has a story to tell, Abigail enjoys working with both beginning and advanced students. She has taught published authors as well as those who have never written, and has learned immeasurably from both. The recipient of several awards and fellowships, she is the author of the novel, Lili, as well as many short stories. Her most recent novel Dogs was published in 2010.
Elaine Dellinger is a native of Yancey County, with ancestral roots here into the late 1700's which has been reflected in her keen interest in local and family histories. She serves on the board of directors of the Yancey History Association and Rush Wray Museum of Yancey History. Her first book with Arcadia Publishing, Images o America Series is Images of Yancey County with co-author Kiesa Kay. Elaine has written several other family history books as well as co-authored the Yancey County Cemetery books. She is currently working with the history association on a new book, Images of Yancey Volume II scheduled to be released in the Spring of 2012.
Rob Amberg ’s photographs and writing from the rural south have been published and exhibited internationally. He has received fellowships and awards from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the Center for Documentary Studies, Alternate Roots, and the National Endowment for the Arts. His books include: Sodom Laurel Album, 2002, which received the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award from the Western North Carolina Historical Association; Quartet: Four North Carolina Photographers, 2007; The Living Tradition: North Carolina Potters Speak, 2009; and The New Road: I-26 and the Footprints of Progress, 2009. Amberg lives in Madison County, North Carolina, with his wife, Leslie Stilwell, their daughter Kate, and an assortment of animals.
Donna Jean Dreyer is the author of Decrescendo: A Memoir of Love and Caregiving, which is her first full-length book. She was educated at DePauw University (Psychology) and Temple University (graduate work in Communication/Journalism) and writing has been a major component of her work in public relations and administration at UNC School of the Arts, Penland School of Crafts, and the American Friends Service Committee. She was married to Bill Dreyer, a theater director, who died in 2003. For stories about her life today visit her blog.
Bob Plott is a North Carolina native who can trace his family roots in the Old North State back to 1750, when his great-great-great-grandfather Johannes Plott arrived here with five of the family hunting dogs. These dogs would later become renowned as the premier big game hunting dog breed in America – the Plott bear hound. Bob wrote a history of the breed – Strike and Stay – The Story of the Plott Hound– was awarded the 2008 Willie Parker Peace N.C. Historical Literary award and it has received outstanding reviews. His other two books are A History of Hunting in the Great Smoky Mountains and Legendary Hunters of the Southern Highlands. He is now working on his fourth book which will be out in October 2011, and has been featured on the History Channel, UNC Public TV Show NC Now, as well as the syndicated TV show Life in the Carolinas. His website.
Pamela Duncan was born in Asheville and grew up in Black Mountain, Swannanoa, and Shelby, North Carolina. She holds a B.A. in journalism from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an M.A. in English/Creative Writing from North Carolina State University in Raleigh. She lives in Cullowhee, North Carolina and teaches creative writing at Western Carolina University. Her first novel, Moon Women, was a Southeastern Booksellers Association (now SIBA) Award Finalist, and her second novel, Plant Life, won the 2003 Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Fiction. She is the recipient of the 2007 James Still Award for Writing about the Appalachian South, awarded by the Fellowship of Southern Writers. Her third novel, The Big Beautiful, was published in March 2007. Her website.
Hannah Gill is an anthropologist with a specialization in Latin American/Caribbean migration studies. Dr. Gill is Assistant Director of the Institute for the Study of the Americas and research associate at the Center for Global Initiatives at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is author of two books, The Latino Migration Experience in North Carolina: New Roots in the Old North State (UNC Press 2010) and Going to Carolina de Norte: Narrating Mexican Migrant Experiences (with Todd Drake, The Center for Global Initiatives, 2007). Dr. Gill received a DPhil in Social Anthropology from the University of Oxford, England in 2004. She is a native of North Carolina and an alumnus of UNC Chapel Hill.
Sherry Lovett has been a storyteller for twelve years starting when she was a middle school teacher. She quickly discovered the power of stories within a classroom to create enthusiasm for learning. She began to explore the craft in earnest after the birth of her daughter, when she became a stay-at-home mom and a professional storyteller. The thing that draws Sherry to storytelling is the magical ability of stories to shine the light on our interrelatedness – the connection of people with people and people with nature – and by this awareness to create more harmony in the world. Sherry Lovett tells a variety of stories including folktales, Native American tales, scary stories, and fairy tales, using precise language, eloquent movement, and dramatic voices to bring the stories to life.
Anna Fariello is author of Cherokee Basketry and Cherokee Pottery published by The History Press. As part of the From the Hands of our Elders series, these two works, along with much of Fariello’s writing, document and interpret material culture. She is author of Blue Ridge Roadways: A Virginia Field Guide to Cultural Sites (2006), Art Section editor of the Encyclopedia of Appalachia, (2006), and co-author of the textbook, Objects & Meaning: New Perspectives on Art and Craft (2003). She has contributed chapters to Extra/ordinary Craft Culture (2011), Handbook of Appalachia (2006), and Monuments to the Lost Cause: Women, Art and the Landscape (2003). A professional curator, Fariello is Associate Professor at Western Carolina University’s Hunter Library, where she is building digital collections focused on the region’s material culture. Currently on the board of the World Craft Council, she was recipient of the 2010 Brown Hudson Award from the North Carolina Folklore Society.
Michael Kline has been a studio potter since 1993. He studied pottery, painting, and printmaking at the University of Tennessee and holds a BFA. At the end of his tenure as Resident Artist at Penland School of Crafts, Michael designed a kiln to fire his new body of stoneware. The kiln is designed to fire exclusively with remainder/ waste wood from local lumber mills. The kiln also is large enough to fire his large-scale pottery as well his tableware. Michael has written articles for the Studio Potter magazine and writes regularly on his blog, “Sawdust & Dirt”. His work has been published in numerous pottery books, including Robin Hopper’s Functional Pottery. He has led many workshops and given presentations of his work at universities and clay centers across the country, including the Penland School. Michael appeared in the 2007 film “Craft in America” which broadcast on PBS. Michael lives in Bakersville, North Carolina where he is a member of the “Potters of the Roan.” He is also a member of the Southern Highland Craft Guild and the Toe River Arts Council. He is married to goldsmith, Stacey Lane and they have two daughters, Evelyn and Lillian.
Ed Sheary has been the Director of Libraries in the Asheville-Buncombe Library System since 1990 and has also worked in the Waynesville Public Library and the Northwest Regional Library in Elkin. He received his Masters of Library Sciences from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. and Kirk Brown chaplain at Christs School in Arden, North Carolina. Here he also works as a teacher and a pastoral counselor to the school community.
The Secret Gardeners (a critique group of illustrators and authors in Asheville)
Kit Grady is a full time children’s illustrator and author living in the mountains of Asheville. Her love for drawing animals, nature and children began very early. She continued her passion studying art at Virginia Commonwealth University and later studied under Caldecott winners Uri Shulevitz and Gale Haley. Her clients include The United Methodist Publishing House/Cokesbury, Kaeden Books,Guardian Angel Publishing and Meegenius. When not writing and illustrating she visits schools and libraries to celebrate the joy of reading. Kit, best known for her bright colors and expressive animals. www.kitgrady.com
Megan Shepherd is a Young Adult writer living in Asheville, NC. Megan caught the writing bug early, growing up in her family's independent bookstore in Brevard. When Megan's not writing, she can usually be found horseback riding, day dreaming at coffee shops, or hiking. Her gothic YA thriller The Madman's Daughter will be released by Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins in early 2013. www.meganshepherd.com
Constance Lombardo is a children’s book writer and illustrator who lives in Asheville, NC. Her writing has been published Humpty Dumpty magazine, WNC Woman magazine and Sixty Second Parent. She also sold a non-fiction story to Highlights Magazine. Her illustrations have appeared in New Moon Girls magazine, Girlfriends magazine and in the SCBWI Bulletin. Her illustration can be seen on her website: www.zhibit.org/conlombardo, and you may visit her blog at: www.constaurspeaks.blogspot.com.
Karen Miller used to be a school teacher and work in a bookstore before she moved to the mountains with her husband and dogs. Nowadays she substitute teaches and writes. "Everyone likes monsters," kids told her. That began her seven year search for monsters that were "real." The result is Monsters and Water Creatures (Henry Holt, May 2007). She just finished a book, The Bogeyman Survival Guide. It tells where to find bogeyman, what they look like and how to protect yourself. The book is in the hands of a lovely literary agent from NYC! She hopes you'll see it at bookstores soon.
Andrea Jacobsen Andrea Jacobsen is a momtrepreneur, artist, and writer who enjoys all things creative. When she began writing, she tried her hand at cute, fuzzy picture books, but found her true passion in the young adult genre. An avid sci-fi lover, she is currently working on an edgy, dystopian novel, which is “light on the sci, heavy on the fi.” She has been published in WNC Woman magazine and the SCBWI Carolinas Pen & Palette. She lives in Asheville, NC, where she enjoys watching good and bad sci- fi movies, bringing puppet play to preschoolers, and staying up way too late with a good book. Holly McGee & Mary Hugenschmidt |
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