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Old Mountain Press
85 John Allman Ln.
Sylva, NC 287798

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About the book

Samples of included works:

Snake Charmer      Kathryn Byer   When she leaned down to draw water, white neck laid bare as she knelt with her jug, thinking only of what she must do next, the supper fire kindled, the skillet set singing with grease for the fritters, the snake that lay   coiled inside dark rushes struck. Had she been taught how to charm him, she might have gone home with only a story to tell, the snake gazing into her eyes where the full moon reflected her unflinching womanly round of obedience to what her blood sang as she journeyed   from duty to duty. How eye to eye she coaxed the serpent back into its silent repose among sally grass, the katydids tuning up, the owl biding time before out of the creekside’s slick hiding places, small night-time morsels crept over the moist grasses, into the moon’s hungry glare.   Kathryn Stripling Byer has lived in the WNC mountains since 1968. Her six books of poetry have won numerous awards. She served for five years as North Carolina’s first woman Poet Laureate.

Grandfather’s Gift Barbara Ledford Wright   WHEN THE MARCH wind blows dust in my face, a memory is rekindled. Daddy swung his car into a dirt road on Stewart Cove. The dust choked Mama, my brother, and me so that we held our hands over our faces. Mama jerked handkerchiefs from her pocketbook, and we pressed them to our faces.        On that day, Daddy parked his 1949 Ford on the side of the road. At the summit of beautiful Brasstown Bald, Georgia, we looked up at the bluebird-colored sky. Daddy told us that on a clear day from the mountain top you could see four states, including Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina and South Carolina.        The trip was to visit my second great-grandfather John Stewart. The elderly man sent word to Mama about the gift he needed to give her before he died. He was 102 years old and preparing for ‘Beulah Land’ that Edgar P. Stites wrote about.        Instead of a wrapped package, Grandfather handed Mama a Bible with a worn leather cover, and opened it to Ezekiel chapter 16 verse 6. He told Mama he was passing to her the gift to stop bleeding. She was the third woman to whom he’d told the secret, and she would "take the charm".        Grandfather gave Mama directions for reading the verse to someone hemorrhaging. She must walk East and recite the verse, substituting the person’s name for the word "thee" when it appeared in the verse. Then the blood would stop. To pass the charm, Mama must tell the secret to three people of the opposite sex. The third man would receive the gift to stop bleeding.        So each March when the air is sweet and pleasant, I recall that special visit with my mountain ancestor. He had an unusual gift.   Barbara Ledford Wright, associate editor to Moonshine and Blind Mules frequently contributes to OMP anthology series, including Waiting With Santa, Clay and Cherokee County Souvenir Edition's, Muscadine Lines: A Southern Journal, Express Yourself 101 Vol 2 For Your Eyes Only, Kaleidoscope, Fireflies and June Bugs, Yesterdays Magazette, Christmas Presence, Clothes Lines, Women’s Spaces Women’s Places, Fresh, Mused, Bread ‘N Molasses, Northern Stars, The Oxford So and So, Carolina Country. Barbara lives in Shelby, NC.

About the Authors

A

JoAnna Arnold lives in Americus, Georgia, with her husband and three children. She is a teacher of French and Spanish at a local high school. In addition, she serves as an adjunct professor of French at South Georgia State University. JoAnna regularly travels with her family and students throughout Europe and Latin America.  Although she believes that teaching high school is an incomparable mission field, she continues to nurture an insatiable love for Jubilee, Haiti.

B

Sam Barbee’s poems appeared Crucible, Asheville Poetry Review, Potato Eyes, Georgia Journal, St. Andrews Review, Charlotte Poetry Review, and Pembroke Magazine. He was awarded an “Emerging Artist’s Grant” from Winston-Salem Arts Council (1994) to publish his first collection Changes of Venue (Mount Olive Press); has been a featured poet on the North Carolina Public Radio Station WFDD; received the 59th Poet Laureate Award from the North Carolina Poetry Society for his poem “The Blood Watch.”

Fred Bassett is a Biblical scholar, novelist, and award-winning poet. His poems have been widely published in journals and anthologies. He has three books of poetry, and his second novel Honey from a Lion was published in January, 2014, by ATTM Press. Now retired, Fred live with his wife Peg in Greenwood SC.

Kathryn Stripling Byer has lived in the WNC mountains since 1968. Her six books of poetry have won numerous awards. She served for five years as North Carolina’s first woman Poet Laureate.

C

Vicki Collins, who lives in Graniteville, South Carolina, teaches English at the University of South Carolina Aiken. Her poetry and prose appear in various anthologies. Currently, she is writing a book of literary criticism about Appalachian literature.

Thomas Rain Crowe is a prize-winning poet and an internationally- published author of thirty books, including the multi-award winning book of nonfiction Zoro’s Field: My Life in the Appalachian Woods (Univ. of Georgia Press, 2005); The Laugharne Poems written in Wales and published by Welsh publisher Carreg Gwalch in 1997; and the classic contemporary Celtic language anthology Writing the Wind: A Celtic Resurgence. As an editor, he has worked with Beatitude magazine, Katuah Journal and the Asheville Poetry Review. He is founder and publisher of New Native Press. His literary archives have been purchased by the Duke University Special Collections Library. He lives in the Tuckasegee community of rural western North Carolina.

Shannon Cuthrell is a Literary Studies and Journalism major at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC. In addition to being a dedicated student, she also devotes a significant amount of time to writing poetry, obsessing over Bill Murray and consuming copious amounts of coffee.

D

Phebe Davidson is a contributing editor at Tar River Poetry and a staff writer for The Asheville Poetry Review. Her book reviews, poems, and essays appear regularly in print and online. She is a recipient of the Kinloch Rivers, Amelia, Soundpost Press, and Ledge Press manuscript prizes. Her newest book, What Holds Him to this World (96 Press, 2014), received the 2013 SC Poetry Archives Book Award.

Tom Davis’s publishing credits include Poets Forum, The Caroli­na Runner, Triathlon Today, Georgia Athlete, The Fayetteville Observer’s Saturday Extra, A Loving Voice Vol. I and II, Special Warfare., and Winston-Salem Writers’ POETRY IN PLAIN SIGHT program for May 2013 (poetry month). He’s authored the following books: The Life and Times of Rip Jackson; A children’s coloring book, Pickaberry Pig, The Patrol Order; and an action adventure novel, The R-complex. Tom lives in Webster, NC.

Nancy Dillingham is a sixth-generation Dillingham from Big Ivy. She is the author of eight books of poetry and short fiction. Her collection of poems Home (March Street Press, 2010) was nominated for a SIBA award. Her latest collection Americana Rural (Wind Publications) was published in 2012. Her poetry recently appeared in Blue Ridge Parkway Celebration: Silver Anniversary Edition, and is forthcoming in Pine Mountain Sand and & Gravel. Nancy lives in Asheville.

F

Dena M. Ferrari is a regular contributor to OMP, Dena’s poetry are featured in Westchester Community College of NY Phoenix (1975); in Charles Weyant’s book, An Odyssey in Broken Rhythms and Ragged Lines (2006). Writer’s Alliance Poets World-Wide anthologies has many of her published works. Dena’s own books, Poems From the Hearth (2010) and Come Closer My Dearies (2013), shows diversified writing styles, leaving a Living Legacy for her grandchildren. She and her husband, Peter live in Vass, NC.

Ann Fogelman, a writer of memories in prose and poetry, was born in Reading, Pa.  Her work has appeared in The Noble Generation, That Thing You Do, Pets Across America, Texas Poetry Calendar, Boundless, and OMP Anthologies.  Ann is a member of Bay Area Writers League, Gulf Coast Poets, Poetry Society of Texas and Osher Lifetime Learning Institute at UTMB, Galveston.  Ann lives in Friendswood, TX.

G

James Gibson (Northville, Michigan) combined his love of the American West and his fascination with Native American culture to write the five novels of the Anasazi Quest series, available at www.PentacleSPresS.com, as well as The Last Ride, a traditional western set outside Tucson, Arizona. Visit his blog at www.anasaziquest.wordpress.com.

Marian Gowan is author of Notes from the Trunk, published by Old Mountain Press (www.oldmp.com/mariangowan.htm). Her work has appeared in several Old Mountain Press anthologies and regional publications, including Longest Hours, Silver Boomer Books, Abilene, TX. Most recently, she contributed to her writing group’s publication, Crossings, which has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize 2014. She retired to the NC mountains from western NY in 2001.

Robin Greene is Professor of English and Writing, and director of the Writing Center at Methodist University in Fayetteville, NC. She’s published four books, regularly publishes in journals and magazines, and is editor of Longleaf Press.

H

Kerri Mai Habben lives in Raleigh, NC where she works as a writer, photographer, and local historian. A graduate of Peace College and North Carolina State University, her work has appeared in literary journals, The News and Observer, and other publications throughout the United States and Canada. The poem included within this anthology depicts a great-uncle’s experience based upon letters and a photograph album. Uncle Henry died at almost 87 in 1992.

MaXine Carey Harker and husband Berkley, have lived 59+ years in the little one-stop-light town of Grifton, NC, reared 5 children who have produced grandchildren and great grandchildren in far-flung places. Published in national, state, and local publications, she prefers non-fiction, sonnets, and haiku. She’s taught Writing for Publication for 35+ years at Community Colleges, now Rec Center in New Bern. MaXine is 85; her doctor tells her she is 65.

Robert Hewett lives in Louisville, KY and writes in several genres including Children; Romance; Old West Romance/Adventure; Humor and Skits. He has been named Poet of the Month on several worldwide sites and Poet of the year on:

www.publishingwithpassion.com, a poetry forum. You can find some of his writings at roberthewettsr.hubpages.com (no www or http://)

J

Beverly Johnston was born in WV, grew up in Chicago and rambled around for a while before finding just the right spot to hermit-up in Lewisville, NC. Finally bored with her own company, she recently resumed contact with the outside world by sharing her poetry and has enjoyed moderately sweeping success with both dogs and the occasional human being. If this writing thing goes well, she may have to stop whining.

K

K. D. Kennedy Jr. has published four (4) books of poetry, short stories, and essays: Our Place In Time, Waiting Out In The Yard, For Rhyme Of Reason, and Progenitors: A Kennedy Genealogy. He has also published works in over twenty anthologies and periodicals. He has served as Chairman of the following: The Board of Trustees of Barton College, the North Carolina Board of Ethics, the North Carolina Theater, and the Building Committee of the Duke Power Performing Arts Center.

Jo Koster teaches English and Medieval Studies at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, SC. She spends too much time on administrivia and not enough time on her writing, but is a devoted minion to her cats. Her new chapbook will be out in Summer 2014.

L

Patsy Kennedy Lain lives in Hubert, NC, and has published works in several anthologies and magazines. Although she has received and enjoyed many awards and honors, her primary joy comes from her passion to write and paint for fun.

Blanche L. Ledford’s work has appeared in Mother’s Little Helper, Happy Feet, The Nature of Things, Waiting With Santa, and other Old Mountain Press anthologies. She received the Paul Green Award from North Carolina Society of Historians for her book, Planting by the Signs, and Simplicity. Blanche lives in Hayesville, NC.

Brenda Kay Ledford is a seventh generational native of Clay County, NC. She’s a member of North Carolina Writer’s Network, North Carolina Poetry Society, and listed with A Directory of American Poets and Fiction Writers. Her work has appeared in many Old Mountain Press anthologies. Finishing Line Press published three poetry chapbooks that won the Paul Green Award. Her blog: www.blueridgepoet.blogspot.com.

K. A. Lewis is living her dream of being a writer. A painter and photographer, she graduated from the Corcoran School of Art in 1986, and since then has worked in jewelry and custom framing. She has written science fiction, fantasy, and poetry since 2010, and this is her first published work. Katy and her husband live with six demanding cats in a little house stuffed with books, in Falls Church, VA.

M

David Treadway Manning lives with his wife Doris in Cary, NC, and moderates The Friday Noon Poets of Chapel Hill. His most recent chapbooks are The Girl Who Came Out with the Stars (Old Mountain Press, 2012) and Genes (Finishing Line, 2013).

Celia Miles is a native of Jackson County, now living and writing in Asheville, NC. Retired from Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College, she has authored seven novels and co-edited three anthologies and a college textbook. Her next novel is a mystery centered around a grist mill. Website: www.celiamiles.com

Kym Gordon Moore, author of Wings of the Wind: A Cornucopia of Poetry, is an award-winning recipient in the Edward Davin Vickers Memorial Award and Oneswan Productions Writing Competition poetry contests. Her poems appeared in Writers Digest Magazine, Poets for Peace: A Collection, Reach of Song, Home for the Holidays and The Blind Man’s Rainbow anthologies. Kym lives in Indian Trail, NC and is a contributing author to Chicken Soup for the Soul: Thanks Mom.

O

Beverly Ohler loves to write, though her life has been focused on the theater, teaching, designing, producing festivals, creating art in one form or another. Growing up in the Northeast, her adult life has primarily been spent on the campus of Warren Wilson College, Asheville, NC, where she is a member of the Theater Department. She has written four books, has edited others, and has stories in numerous publications.

Martha O’Quinn lives in Hendersonville, NC. She writes poetry and creative non-fiction. Her work has appeared in a number of anthologies and regional publications both in print and online. Most recently two poems were published in Longest Hours, a Silver Boomer anthology out of Abilene, TX and she was one of six authors who collectively created Crossings, a poetry and prose anthology published by Old Mountain Press.

P

Patricia Podlipec taught first grade for over two decades. After retirement she and her husband moved from Wisconsin to Hendersonville, North Carolina, where she began to write poetry. Her work has been published in numerous anthologies with a few of her poems winning honorable mentions. Recently she has been writing children’s poetry. One of those poems has won another honorable mention in the 2014 Caldwell Nixon Jr. contest sponsored by the North Carolina Poetry Society.

Michael Potts is Professor of Philosophy at Methodist University in Fayetteville, North Carolina. His poems are published in several literary journals and anthologies as well as in a chapbook, From Field to Thicket, which won the 2006 Mary Belle Campbell Poetry Book Award of the North Carolina Writers’ Network. His novel, End of Summer was published in 2011 by WordCrafts Press, and his second novel from Wordcrafts, Unpardonable Sin, will be published this year.

R

Cindy Rickey’s poetry credits include MetroNY; the NY Times blog; Blueline; Avocet, Journal of Nature Poetry; Avocet Weekly; Emerald Coast Review; Kakalak; Red Fez; Poetry Pacific; The Mountaineer; Miller’s Pond Poetry Magazine; On Your Mark; Sacred Visions; and a poetry book, A Year in the Life of an Unemployed Poet. She was a winner of the NYC Office of Cultural Affairs Poetweet contest. Cindy recently moved from the NYC suburbs to a Waynesville, NC, mountaintop.

Dwight Roth is a retired elementary school teacher of 29 years, who grew up in the mountains of Southwestern Pennsylvania. He enjoys writing, poetry, painting, and writing music. He is a member of the Indian Trail Cultural Arts poetry readers club, and has had poems published on Kym Gordon Moore’s Tea and Poetry Blog Spot. He has been published in Common Ground Magazine, and church periodicals. He is married and lives in Monroe, NC.

Carmen Ruggero. Fiction writer and poet. Co-authored a poetry anthology, Shaken & Stirred, and short story collection, Kaleidoscope, published by BeWrite Books. Adventure Books of Seattle published her short story collection: Eighty-six Eggs. Joined Bewildering Stories as an author and review editor. In 2011, she became part of a writers group organized by her hometown newspaper, where she was also a contributing author. Carmen lives in Crawfordsville, IN.

S

Dr. Lynn Veach Sadler, native North Carolinian and former college president, has published 5+ books and 72 articles, edited 22 books/proceedings and three national journals, and published a newspaper column. In creative writing, she has published 10 poetry chapbooks and 4 full-length collections (another in press), 100+ short stories, 4 novels, a novella, and a short story collection (another forthcoming) and written 41 plays. As Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poet 2013-2015, she mentors student and adult poets.

Rishan Singh was born in the KwaZulu-Natal province in Durban, South Africa. He showed promise as a young writer of literature from his high school years. He had first been chosen by the editorial board of his high school magazine (which comprised highly established writers), The Protea Chronicle, for publication. This culminated in exhibitions and publications in international journals, magazines and anthologies. He is regarded by many as an international leading scholar or world scholar.

Dorothea Spiegel, of Gainesboro, Tennessee, loves mountains. She has lived near them in Vermont, Georgia and Tennessee. Several of her poems, published in former OMP anthologies, reflect her Mountain High, (title of one of the anthologies) but she still writes, mostly poems. She can’t climb anymore, so she looks out the window for inspiration.

D. A. Spruzen grew up near London, U.K., earned an MFA in Creative Writing from Queens University of Charlotte, and teaches writing in Northern Virginia. Her poetry chapbook, Long in the Tooth, was published by Finishing Line Press in July 2013. Dorothy is seeking representation for her novel The Blitz Business, set in WWII England. The first two novels in her Flower Ladies Trilogy and Crossroads: Two Novellas, are available on Amazon.

Sheri Stanley’s work has appeared in several on-line venues across these United States. She is an artist, a writer/poet, songwriter and book illustrator. She resides in the Pacific Northwest, and enjoys spending precious time with her family. Visit Sheri's Web Site www.poetryandbeyond.net

Tonya Staufer found her way back to writing a few years ago. She is a real estate investment broker by day and a writer by night. She and her husband call Saluda, NC home. Her stories have appeared in Spirit of the Smokies, A Long Story Short, Western NC Woman, Moonshine Review, and numerous anthologies.

Wendy S. Stephens lives in Transylvania County, NC, which she considers a magical and inspiring place. An avid traveler, she writes travel blogs as well as short stories featuring friends and family in the locations she and her husband visit. Her work has appeared in Women’s Spaces Women’s Places and Waiting With Santa.

Shelby Stephenson lives near 50-210 (McGee’s Crossroads), a little north of Benson, North Carolina. The Hunger of Freedom (Red Dashboard Publishing: 2014: www.reddashboard.com) is his most recent book of poems.

John Snow Strickland is a native of Hendersonville, NC and has practiced dentistry there for 22 years. He graduated from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill twice; undergrad in 1987 and dental school in 1991.  He has loved these mountains for as long as he can remember.

W

Charles F. “Hawk” Weyant and his wife Johanna live in Fayetteville, NC, where he has been a member of Writers’ Ink Guild for thirty years. He read on Public Radio for ten years and his poems and stories appear in more than two dozen anthologies, and on two web sites. His book An Odyssey In Broken Rhythms And Ragged Lines was nominated for a Pushcart Award.

Glenda S. Wilkins grew up on an eastern NC tobacco farm, and believed she’d never live beyond the county line. Decades later, she moved to Europe for almost a dozen years. Her poems are published in the U.S.A., Canada, Spain, Luxembourg, Switzerland, and Great Britain. Along the way, she has won several poetry awards. Today, she lives with her husband on an airstrip outside Winterville, NC.

Barbara Ledford Wright, associate editor to Moonshine and Blind Mules frequently contributes to OMP anthology series, including Waiting With Santa, Clay and Cherokee County Souvenir Edition’s, Muscadine Lines: A Southern Journal, Express Yourself 101 Vol 2 For Your Eyes Only, Kaleidoscope, Fireflies and June Bugs, Yesterdays Magazette, Christmas Presence, Clothes Lines, Women’s Spaces Women’s Places, Fresh, Mused, Bread ‘N Molasses, Northern Stars, The Oxford So and So, Carolina Country. Barbara lives in Shelby, NC.

Y

C. Pleasants York’s “Tuckaseegee Travel Log” is a journal entry when she, her husband Guy, their son Jonathan, and their black dachshund Monroe visited the Tuckaseegee River for the first time as guests of Tom and Polly Davis. York was lucky enough to celebrate her birthday at an Old Mountain Press reading, giving her the opportunity to meet talented writers. She also survived whitewater rafting and got a t-shirt! C. Pleasants York lives in Sanford, NC.