Frederick W. Bassett, an Alabama native, holds four academic degrees, including a Ph.D. in Biblical literature from Emory University. Paraclete Press published two books of “found” poems he created from Biblical lyrics — Love: The Song of Songs (2002), and Awake My Heart (1998). Recent publications include poems in Connecticut River Review, Poem, Slant, and Whatever Remembers Us: an Anthology of Alabama Poetry. He lives at Hilton Head, South Carolina, with his wife Peg.

Michael Bassett has an MFA in poetry from Vermont College and a Ph.D. from the University of Southern Mississippi. He is the winner of the Fugue 4th Annual Poetry Contest, judged by Tony Hoagland and the Joan Johnson Poetry Award. Pudding House Press published his first chapbook, Karma Puppets, in 2003. A second chapbook, Waiting for Love to Make My Phone Explode is curre3ntly available from March Street Press. 

Laurie Billman is a half-way happily married Mental Health Therapist with two daughters living in North Carolina. Her poetry has appeared in The Mcguffin, 13th Moon, and The Rambler. She has poems appearing in the anthologies Not What I Expected, and Sand and Sea.

Joann Bishop has been published in a book Tale Spinners in Canada. Her poems include “Birds Walking on Wire”, “Peacocks” and “Wildlife Preservation”. She enjoys writing about botanical gardens, historical sites and nature poems. She is in the processing of completing a nature book of poems with photographs she has taken herself. She currently lives in Jacksonville, NC.

THOMASA BONNER'S work has been published in one Old Mountain Press Anthology. She lives in Fayetteville, NC. 

Rachel Bronnum’s work has been published in four Old Mountain Press Anthologies and in Freeing Jonah. She lives in Lawrenceville, GA and Highlands, NC and derives inspiration from her Southern roots. 

Stuart Burroughs has been involved since childhood in visual art, poetry, and music. She has taught English and art, and her art hangs in many homes. A collection of her poems, Beyond the Hills can be purchased on Amazon.com or from The Chapel Hill Press. Her poems appear in anthologies and other publications. She lives in Chapel Hill, NC, where she writes, paints, and plays piano for others.

Poet Mary Margaret Carlisle is published in print and online in various literary journals, magazines, anthologies, and newspapers; she is a member of Texas Association of Creative Writing Teachers, Monday Night Poets, Galveston Poets Roundtable, Academy of American Poets, etc. She lives in Webster, Texas, volunteers for the Red Cross, is Councilor for Poetry Society of Texas, President of the Gulf Coast Poets, and Executive Director of Sol Magazine Projects. www.Sol-Magazine-Projects.org

Ed Cockrell is a published poet residing in Chapel Hill where he occasionally attends Friday Noon Poets. He has served as the corresponding secretary for the North Carolina Poetry Society for many years, and is the current president of the Poetry Council of North Carolina, Inc.

Frank Craddock is a retired school teacher and antiques dealer who lives in Lynchburg, VA. In 2004 he published Day Avenue. He is the Vice President for the Western District of the Poetry Society of Virginia. 

Russell Crews work has appeared in OMP Sand, Sea, and Sails. He is the author of The Wisdom of God through Love and Romance, a collection of spiritual and romantic poetry. Born and raised in Dothan, Alabama he moved to Orangeburg, South Carolina in 1990. A physical education teacher for Allendale County Schools, he will publish a children’s book in 2008 title, When Children Play.

Patricia Daharsh wrote her first poem at age 12 – a forgettable ode to the Pee Dee River. In the ensuing years, much has been written and much has been discarded. She has no publishing credits to list as this is her first submission. Pat lives in Pinellas Park, FL, writing poetry and recording childhood memories of travels with her parents and other early migrant workers in the eastern U.S. who called themselves “fruit tramps.”

Phebe Davidson, a staff writer for The Asheville Poetry Review, is author of several collections of poetry, most recently Twelve Leagues In from Spire Press. Her poems and reviews appear in a wide assortment of journals and online publications. A new collection, Fat Moon Rising, will be published by Main Street Rag in 2008. Self-described as a recovering academic, she lives in Westminster, SC with her husband Steve & their cat Fripp.

Tom Davis’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, and Special Warfare. He’s authored a collection of short stories, The Life and Times of Rip Jackson; a children’s coloring book, Pickaberry Pig; a how to book on writing a ranger patrol order, The Patrol Order; and an action adventure novel, The R-complex. Tom currently lives in Fayetteville, NC.

Lois Parker Edstrom’spoetry has appeared in Arnazella, Cascade, and the Washington Poetry Association’s Anthology, Tattoos on Cedar. She was awarded prizes by Whidbey Island Writer’s Association, First Prize 2005 and Grand Prize 2006. She received the Whidbey Island Writer’s Conference Benefactor’s Award and the Hackney National Literary Award for poetry, third place. Her poetry has been choreographed into dance by the Bellingham Repertory Dance Company. Lois lives on Whidbey Island, WA.

Terri Kirby Erickson of Lewisville, NC, is a poet, editor, teacher and visual artist. She is the author of a book of poetry entitled, Thread Count, which you can find at amazon.com. Her work has been published by Old Mountain Press, The Christian Science Monitor, Paris Voice, Forsyth Woman, the North Carolina Arts Council and others. Her work was also selected in 2006 and 2007 for an international juried exhibit by the Northwest Cultural Council.

Ann Fogelman is a writer of memories in prose and poetry. Her work has been published in anthologies, The Nobel Generation Volumn II, That Thing You Do, That Thing You Do, Too, Looking Back, Sand, Sea, and Sail and various school publications. She is a member of Bay Area Writers League, Gulf Coast Poets, The Poetry Society of Texas and The Arts Alliance Center in Clear Lake. Ann, currently lives in Friendswood, TX.

Dare Freeman Ford is a freelance writer poet with a background in education. Ford recently published Don’t Make me Turn this Bus Around, a chronicle of her adventures as a teenage bus driver in Anson County, North Carolina. Her work has appeared in several regional publications, including Looking Back Anthology, published by Old Mountain Press. She and her husband live in Hendersonville, North Carolina. They have two adult children.

Thomas Gluzinski writes poetry as a hobby and is currently published nationally and internationally in several anthologies, including De Oppresso Liber. Thomas has received several awards for his work and is currently at work on several books of poetry for publication. Thomas resides in Lindenhurst, IL.

Marian Gowan, a graduate of Tufts University, discovered personal writing after retiring to Hendersonville, NC from western NY, following her thirty-year career in a large corporation. She contributed to American Patchwork, published by St. Martins Press in April 2007. Her work has also appeared in several regional publications, and in OMP’s Looking Back and Sand, Sea & Sail.

Phyllis Jean Green has been enjoying reading with David T. Manning and Sara Claytor following the coincidental publication ofchapbooks by Pudding House. She recently won High Commendation in the 2007 John Reid Contest.The Friday Noon Poets member and her husband Ray relish the rural life within a few raucous Beat Doooooks ofChapel Hill.

Kerri Mai Habben lives in Raleigh, NC, where she works as a writer and a photographer. Her essays and poetry have appeared in literary journals and other publications. She is currently working on a novel, set in 1929 at a tuberculosis sanitarium.

Ken Hada teaches at East Central University in Ada, Oklahoma, where he directs the annual Scissortail Creative Writing Festival. Some of his poetry appears in RE:AL, Oklahoma Today, Kansas City Voices, Flint Hills Review, Poesia, Westview, Crosstimbers, among others.

Kristina Carol Hall is currently living in Jacksonville, NC. She is a proud minister’s wife and the mother of four wonderful children.

Shannon Hamner grew up loving books and has always had a passion for writing from a very early age. As a stay at home mother of three boys, she is constantly challenged creatively. Shannon hopes to one day publish a novel. Shannon lives in Savoy, TX.

Mark E. Harden is a retired United States Army Chief Warrant Officedr 3. He currently manages Veterans Affairs at Austin Community College, in Austin, TX. He has written extensively about his combat experience in Mogadishu, Somalia, and has recently published in Red River Review. Mark lives in Georgetown, TX, with his wife, Kathy.

MaXine Carey Harker, 78,left Idaho for New Bern, NC in 1953. The shock of moving from sage brush country to a town surrounded by water brought out the writer in her. She has won a considerable amount of recognition for her nonfiction, fiction and poetry over the years. Ended up teaching Creative Writing at two Community Colleges (PCC, CCC) and still teaches at the Rec. Center in New Bern. Currently resides in Grifton, NC. 

JanetL. Harvey lives Thornhill Ontario,have had numerous poems published in a variety of Canadian magazine and anthologies including Sterling silver, Feminine Magazine, Word Dance. Stella Showcase Journal, Artist for a Better World. She is Poetry Canada’s Global contest winner.

Ann Herlong-Bodman is a writer, traveler, and teacher who lives in Mount Pleasant, SC. She received a fellowship from the South Carolina Academy of Authors and has published two books: In the Wake of Saints and Sinners and Voices Over Water. When she is not traveling and writing, she teaches English As a Second Language in Charleston Public Schools.

Jackie W. Jackson, a resident of Raceland, Louisiana, is an Instructor at Nicholls State University, where she teaches writing of all types. She’s had poetry published in The Louisiana English Journal and The Jubilee Anthology. She is presently chair of the Jambalaya Writers’ Conference held annually in April in Houma, Louisiana.

Jerry Judge is a social worker by profession and lives in Cincinnati with his wife, three cats and a dog who walks him regularly. He has two sons. One son is a firefighter in Dayton, Ohio and the other is a freshman at Ohio State U. Jerry is the author of four poetry chapbooks and has published in many journals.

Alice Kallmerten livesin Gilford, NH close to son and grandchildren. She was raised in West Virginiaand still calls it home, however the Belknap Mts bring peace and contentment. Just published in Charlotte, NC’s Writers Club Anthology, also in Mountain Time and others.

K. D. Kennedy, Jr. has published two books of poetry, Our Place In Time (2002) and Waiting Out In The Yard (2006). He has been published in the Barton College Crucible, In the Yard, a poetry anthology, and several other anthologies. He is presently writing short stories along with poetry, and is researching a novel when not gainfully employed or producing theater (Hot Summer Nights At The Kennedy) www.HotSummerNightsAtTheKennedy.org

Margaret King was born in Colorado and raised in the gold mining camps and towns of Nevada .She lives in Fort Collins Colorado and is the author of the Emily Jaramillo series. 

Jo Koster teaches medieval literature and writing at Winthrop University. Recent work has appeared in the collections Looking Back (Old Mountain Press) and A Cadence of Hooves (Yarroway Mountain Press) and in the e-zine More than Words. Her most recent chapbook, No Going Home, was published by Devil’s Millhopper Press. She and her cat Mishka live in comfortable chaos and in Rock Hill, SC.

Blanche L. Ledford lives in Hayesville, NC. Her work has appeared in Blue Ridge Guide, Lights in the Mountains, Looking Back, Sand, Sea, & Sail, and other journals. She’s an avid reader and member of Georgia Mountain Writer’s Club. 

Brenda Kay Ledford lives in Hayesville, NC. She’s a freelance writer and poet. Her work has appeared in Our State, Cappers, Back Home in Kentucky, Sand, Sea & Sail, and other journals. Brenda received the 2007 Paul Green Multimedia Award from NC Society of Historians for her poetry chapbook, Shew Bird Mountain.

Linera Lucas holds an MFA from Queens University of Charlotte, an MA in Theatre History from the University of Washington, and a BA in Theatre from Reed College. Her work has been published in Pindeldyboz, VerbSap, Pipes and Timbrels, Bede’s Journal, R-KV-RY, and in the anthology In the Yard. She lives in Portland, OR.

Michael H. Lythgoe is a retired Air Force officer who holds an MFA from Bennington College. His chapbook, BRASS, won the Kinloch Rivers contest in Charleston in 2006. His first full collection, Holy Week, is forthcoming from Xlibris. Recent work in Windhover, Potomac Review. Mike is Past President of the Academy For Lifelong Learning at USCA in Aiken, SC. 

David T. Manning was winner of the NC Poetry Society’s Poet Laureate award in 1996, 1998 and 2006. A Pushcart nominee, his poems have appeared in various journals and five chapbooks, most recently Detained by the Authorities (Pudding House), in 2007. His full-length poetry collection, The Flower Sermon, is due this fall in Main Street Rag’s Editor’s Select Poetry Series.

Terry McCoy lives in Merritt, NC. His poems have appeared in numerous journals including the Lyricist and the collegiate anthology Appalachia Inside Out. He served with the 9th Infantry Division in Vietnam. 

HALLE MEYER lives in Raleigh, North Carolina with her husband and three children, for whom she sleeps tight each night. 

Stephen Miles lives in Fayetteville, NC and writes stuff. His work, in all genres, has garnered many awards including the Sanskrit Award for outstanding achievement in literature, two first place poetry awards from Tar Heel Poets, the Thompson Theatre Playwrights Award, the Cambridge University (UK) Stallis Poetry Award, the Crucible State Poetry Award, a North Carolina Playwrights Readers Choice Award, an award from some poetry group in Albania he still can’t read and ad naseum. 

Philip S. Morse’s poems have appeared in The Journey; The Poets’ Corner, Selected Poems; Sand, Sea, and Sail (Old Mountain Press); and Bay Leaves. In 2007, he was an award winner in the North Carolina Poetry Council Contest. A professor emeritus from The State University of New York at Fredonia where he taught writing and the creative arts, Phil resides with his wife, Judith, in Fearrington Village, North Carolina.

Wendy Natkong’s work has appeared in two Chicken Soup for the Soul books, as well as earlier inspirational anthologies. She has retired, due to MS, from a long career as an Emergency Medical professional. After sixteen years in Alaska, she and her husband Don now live near Ivanhoe, NC.

Conrad Neumann, recently retired from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is an oceanographer and poet. His work has appeared in Poetalk and several anthologies including Vineyard Poets, Immigration and Diversity, Never on Friday, and Sand, Sea and Sail. He has traveled widely on and under the ocean. His scientific work is on the geology of the sea floor and sea level change. He currently lives in Durham, NC, and Martha’s Vineyard, MA.

Jerome Norris lives with his beautiful wife by a pond near New Bern, NC. He’s a reformed lawyer who now devotes full time to writing stories and poems. He’s quit his day job, but not because there’s any money in this racket.

Martha O’Quinn is a native of NC and has lived in five different southern states. Family stories and poetry reflect a true southern heritage. Her work has appeared in WNC-Woman, The Independent Weekly and in previous Old Mountain Press anthologies. Martha currently lives in Hendersonville, NC. 

Margaret L. Parrish’spoems have appeared in (Poets for Peace), The Lyricist, Bay Leaves, Mountain Time and other publications. She lives and works in Raleigh. 

Joyce Richardson lives and writes in Athens, OH. Her poetry chapbook The Reader is currently in bookstores. She is the author of an Appalachian novel, On Sunday Creek and her short stories and poems have appeared in numerous periodicals including The Writer, Appalachian Heritage and Riverwind. She is the wife and mother of clowns. 

Pat Riviere-Seel received an MFA from Queens University of Charlotte, NC, and is immediate past president of the NC Poetry Society. She teaches a poetry writing class at UNCA’s Great Smokies Writing Program and is an Associate Editor of the Asheville Poetry Review. Her chapbook, No Turning Back Now, was published by Finishing Line Press and nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

Edwina Rooker holds degrees from Duke University and The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is a longtime member of The North Carolina Writers Network and Carteret Writers. She won an honorable mention in The Poetry Council of North Carolina’s 2007 contest. Her newspaper column Observations appears in the Warren Record. She lives on the Neuse River in Bridgeton, NC.

Dr. Lynn Veach Sadler, of Sanford, NC, is a former college president and has published widely in academics and creative writing. Editor, poet, fiction/creative nonfiction writer, and playwright, she has a full-length poetry collection forthcoming from RockWay Press. 

Joanna Catherine Scott is the author of the novels The Road from Chapel Hill; Cassandra, Lost; The Lucky Gourd Shop; and Charlie; the nonfiction Indochina’s Refugees: Oral Histories from Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam; and the poetry collections Breakfast at the Shangri-la; Fainting at the Uffizi; and Night Huntress. A graduate of the University of Adelaide and Duke University, she was born in England, raised in Australia, and now lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Marian Kaplun Shapiro, a previous contributor to Old Mountain Press,practices as a psychologist and poet in Lexington, Massachusetts. She is the author of a professional book, Second Childhood (Norton, 1988), and a poetry book, Players In The Dream, Dreamers In The Play (Plain View Press, 2007). Two chapbooks are currently in press: Your Third Wish, (Finishing Line); and The End Of The World, Announced On Wednesday (Pudding House).

Maureen A. Sherbondy’s work has appeared in Feminist Studies, Calyx, Confrontation, and other journals. Her book, After the Fairy Tale, was published in March by Main Street Rag. Another book, Praying at Coffee Shops in the South, will be published in 2008. Maureen lives in Raleigh, NC, with her husband and three sons. Her website is: www.maureensherbondy.com

Dorothea Spiegel lives in Hiawassee, Georgia. She is a member of North Carolina Writer’s Network West and North Georgia Mountains Writer’s Club. She studied creative writing at Tri-County College and John Campbell Folk School. Her poetry has appeared in Atahita Journal, Freeing Jonah III, IV, and V, Lights In The Mountains, Mountain Time, Home For The Holidays, The Spirit of Christmas, Looking Back and Sand, Sea and Sail.

Tonya Staufer lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Hendersonville, North Carolina. She is an investment real estate broker by day and sometimes by night. Through some very synchronistic events, Tonya has returned to writing after a long hiatus. Recently, her stories have been published in Spirit of the Smokies, A Long Story Short, and Looking Back.

Dennis Ward Stiles was raised on a small farm in Illinois. He graduated from the USAF Academy in 1964, and spent thirty years in the Air Force as a pilot and military diplomat. Many of his assignments were overseas. His poetry has appeared in many distinguished literary journals and anthologies, including those published by Old Mountain Press. His most recent chapbook is Humdinger, issued in 2007 by Pudding House. He lives in Charleston, SC. 

Katherine Tracy lives in Thibodaux, LA, where she teaches English at Nicholls State University. She published, designed, and edited Thunder Rain’s 2007 anthology In The Eye: A Collection of Writings. Her poem “Swayed by the Sea” appeared in Sand, Sea, & Sail (2007). Most recently, she worked on the books Education Through Her Eyes by Ali Mageehon and The Gar Diaries by Louis Bourgeois.

Chris Vierck is a poet who currently lives and writes in Lenoir, North Carolina.

Betty Watson grew up in the northeast, lived up and down the east coast and retired to WNC from Boston in 1995. Writing since college she has taken writing courses at Univ. of GA, The Joiner Center at U.Mass/Boston and at Blue Ridge Community College under Susan Snowden. She participates in two writing groups. Proud mother of four daughters, Betty lives in Flat Rock, NC with her husband Doug.

Charles F. “The Hawk” Weyant’s book An Odyssey in Broken Rhythms and Ragged Lines (195 pgs) was published in 2006. He read on PBS radio for ten years and his poems appear in several anthologies. A true imagist poet, and battle-scared veteran of three tours in Vietnam; his style (both in dress and style), lack of academic credentials and literary laurels has led to him being called by some an “outlaw poet”. 

Gail White has edited several anthologies including KISS AND PART and has a new book in progress at Word Tech Press. She lives in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana.

Stella Ward Whitlock grew up in Florida but has lived in North Carolina since 1960. She is the wife of a Presbyterian minister, mother of four, and grandmother of seven. She currently lives in Fayetteville, NC, where she is a writing instructor at Methodist University. Her chapbook, Florida Heat, is scheduled to be published in spring 2008 by Finishing Line Press.

Glenda Sumner Wilkins grew up on a North Carolina tobacco farm, and daydreamed of faraway places. Decades later, she and her husband lived in both Luxembourg, and Geneva, Switzerland. Countries where published: USA; Canada; Spain: Luxembourg; Switzerland; Great Britain. She is a member of the NCPS and NCWN, and has won several poetry awards. Today, she resides in Winterville, NC, with her husband, and Bustopher, the cat about town. 

Nancy H. Womack is a retired educator who enjoys gardening and traveling. Her poetry has appeared in Appalachain Heritage, The Thomas Wolfe Review, Teaching English in the Two-Year College, The Mentor, Bay Leaves, and in two previous OMP anthologies, Home for the Holidays and Sand, Sea, and Sail. She lives in Rutherfordton, NC.

Barbara Ledford Wright was an Associate Editor for Hometown Memories: Moonshine and Blind Mules and her story was printed in the anthology.  She's been published in the following:  Home for the Holidays, Looking Back, Sand, Sea, & Sail, Readers are Leaders (Express Yourself 101 Vol.2), Muscadine: A Southern Journal, and Night Whispers. Forthcoming stories  will be published in Conceit Magazine and The Poetry Explosion (The Pen) in 2008.  She has returned to teaching, and presently lives in Shelby, NC.