Words: A Poetry and Prose Antholog

Matthew G. Adams continues to be inspired by all things Whovian. His poetry has appeared in Mountain Time,Home for the Holidays,Looking Back,Mountain High,You Gotta Love ‘em, Just Between Us, and Traveling Time. He lives in Midway Park, NC.

Sandra Ervin Adams’ poetry appeared in all previous Old Mountain Press anthologies. She is still hoping to publish several poetry books that have been in the making for a long time. Besides writing and reading, she likes to watch old movies, sing along with music CDs, and talk on the phone with her friends. Sandra lives in Midway Park, NC.

Healan Barrow’s work has appeared in publications in Maryland, including The Olney Gazette, The Howard County Times, The Columbia Business Journal and Maryland Life. She has also co-authored the book, Olney: Echoes of the Past. Currently, Healan lives in Raleigh, NC, where she writes for pleasure and still saves her words.

Fred Basset is a retired academic. His latest poetry book, The Old Stoic Faces the Mirror: A Life in Poems, was published in 2010 by Salt Marsh Cottage Books. His debut novel, South Wind Rising, was published by ATTM Press in 2010. He lives with his wife Peg in Greenwood, SC, near their grandchildren. Both books are available on Amazon.com.

Joann Bishop has had a poem published in the Barton Literary Student Anthology titled Picture on a the Mantle in 2010. She helped Barton College with other PBL teammates take first place in Decisionmaking and fifth place in Community Service at NC PBL State Conference in 2010. This poem was written in dedication to all the libraries of the United States. Libraries are nice to have around. Joann lives in Jacksonville, NC.

Ervene Boydlives in Raleigh, North Carolina. She enjoys writing, painting and as well as officiating weddings and teaching Reiki. Her life mission is to facilitate personal spiritual development and she advocates awareness of the inter-dependent connections between everything with her poetry, painting and teaching. Previously published in OMP anthologies, she is semi-retired and available for word medicine, wall medicine or energy medicine.

Jerry Bradley spent thirty years in the US Air Force from which he retired in August 2008. He and his, wife, Laura, were stationed at the different military locations. During his career he wrote poetry off and on and now has the opportunity to concentrate on his writing. Most of his poems are related to this faith, his family or the military. They raised three children, a daughter in the Army, a daughter married to Army, and a son in the Air Force. Jerry and Laura currently live in Raeford, NC.

Rachel Bronnum’s work has appeared in several Old Mountain Press Anthologies and most recently in Echoes Across the Blue Ridge, a collection by writers from the Southern Appalachian Mountains. She lives in Lawrenceville, Georgia and Highlands, North Carolina.

Stuart Burroughs has been involved since childhood in visual art, poetry, and music. She has taught English and art, and her paintings hang in many homes. Her poems are in several anthologies, and her poetry collection, Beyond the Hills, can be purchased on Amazon.com or from The Chapel Hill Press. Stuart lives in Chapel Hill, NC, where she writes, paints, and plays her piano program, Music to Remember, at several locations.

Tom Burson lives in Alexandria, VA. He work at Dulles Airport and is the guy who waves the wands to bring the plane into the Ramp. He has always written for performance and has preformed with Jazz musicians in DC and Charlottesville area.

Mary Margaret Carlisle of Webster, TX belongs to the Poetry Society of Texas, Gulf Coast Poets, Galveston Poets Roundtable, and other writing groups. Sol Magazine Projects Director, she judges writing competitions, and speaks to groups. She’s presented over a hundred poetry workshops, and has two new poetry books: Toss Me to the Waiting Sky, and It’s Always About the Rain. She says, “Compassion is empathy in action. Write for yourself, write for others, write for peace and justice.”

Bud Caywood lives and works from his lakehouse in Alexander County, NC where he is a freelance furniture designer, artist and writer. His poems have been published in many anthologies and journals. He has written one full length collection of poems and eleven chapbooks.

Jim Clark lives in Wilson, NC, where he is the Elizabeth H. Jordan Professor of Southern Literature and Chair of the Department of English and Modern Language at Barton College. His latest work is The Service of Song, a CD featuring his musical settings of the poems of the North Georgia “farmer-poet” Byron Herbert Reece.

Ed Cockrell lives in Orange County NC writing poetry for random reasons about random subjects in random places at random times. His life is ruled by randomness, much like everyone else.

Vicki Collins lives in Graniteville, SC, and teaches English at the University of South Carolina Aiken. She belongs to both the Authors Club of Augusta and the Augusta Poetry Group. Her work has appeared in Kakalak: Anthology of Carolina Poets, The Sheltered Poet, The Teacher’s Voice, Barbaric YAWP, and Traveling Time.

Michael Colonnese directs the Creative Writing Program at Methodist University. His latest book is a mystery novel, Sex and Death, I Suppose. He lives in Fayetteville, NC.

Edmund Conti’s poems have appeared in hundreds of magazines, a few of which have not gone out of business. He was the featured poet in Light Magazine. Among his chapbooks are Quiblets, The Ed C. Scrolls, Eddies and Greatest Hits from Pudding House Press. Edmund lives in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Sonja Contois is an award-winning author with short stories in Christmas Presence and oodles of Old Mountain Press Anthologies. Her magazine credits include Western North Carolina Woman and Fresh. A former therapist and minister, Sonja is now a full-time writer living in the beautiful mountains of Waynesville, NC.

Dawn Culverwell lives in Hendersonville, NC With her husband and cat Ali-gato. She has had poetry and stories published in Western North Carolina Woman magazine, Old Mountain Press, and has placed eight in Writers Digest poetry contest in 2010.

Mary Ann Davis is a retired English teacher who taught the gifted program at the Dooly County High School in Vienna, GA. She holds a BA degree in English and French and a Masters and an EdS in English Education from Georgia Southwestern University and the University of Georgia. She loves reading and writing and is the author of the book Mam Maw’s ABCs, a fun read about the letters of the alphabet. She currently lives in Vienna, GA.

Tom Davis’s publishing credits include Poets Forum, The Carolina Runner, Triathlon Today, Georgia Athlete, The Fayetteville Observers 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 lives in Fayetteville, NC.

Nancy Dillingham, poet, is a sixth-generation Dillingham from Big Ivy in WNC. She is the author of six books of poetry and short stories and co-editor, along with Celia Miles, of two anthologies of WNC women writers and a forthcoming one. Her latest book of poems is entitled Home from March Street Press.

Elon G. Eidenier’s work has appeared in various journals including the Virginia Quarterly Review and Rhino. Two collections have been published, Sonnets to Eurydice and Draw Flame Catch Fire. His poems have been translated in Russian and Greek. Elon, lives in Hillsborough, NC

Debra Elramey writes and teaches in Wilson NC. Her writing has appeared in numerous publications, including Sojourners, Windhover, Crucible, and Traveling Time. Her story “The Gentle Art of Birthing at Home” was published in Natural Life magazine in January 2011. She is currently working on a memoir on life lessons. “The Lost Medal” is in memory of her mother. More of her writing can be found at:

Terri Kirby Erickson,North Carolina native, is the author of three collections of poetry, two of which, Telling Tales of Dusk (2009) and In the Palms of Angels (2011) were published by Press 53. Her work has appeared in numerous literary journals, anthologies and other publications, and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and a Best of the Net Award. Terry currently lives in Lewisville, NC. Please visit her website at: www.terrikirbyerickson.wordpress.com

Dena M. Ferrari, has poems in a few OMP anthologies. She’s the author of Poems from the Hearth 2010. She placed several times in Fields of Earth, sponsored by the Writers’ Ink Guild and in Charles Weyant’s book, An Odyssey in Broken Rhythms and Ragged Lines (2006). Several works are included within the Writers Alliance World-Wide Poets. Dena’s poetry is also in WCC of NY The Phoenix (1976). Dena and Peter are from Vass, NC Brightest Blessings.

Ann Fogelman, was born in Reading, Pa. Her work has appeared in Pets Across America, The Noble Generation, That Thing YouDo, Boundless 2010, Traveling Time and other anthologies and school publications. She is a member of Bay Area Writers League, Gulf Coast Poets, Poetry Society of Texas, The Arts Alliance Center in Clear Lake, and OLLI in Galveston. Ann lives in Friendswood, TX.

James Gibson (Northville, MI) combined his love of the American West and fascination with Native American culture to write the five novels in the Anasazi Quest series. He also wrote The Last Ride, set outside Tucson, AZ, in the 1870s. All six of his novels can be found at the www.pentaclespress.com website. The Anasazi Quest novels can be purchased through Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.

BJ Gillum lives in a lakehouse near Rockwood, TN where he has been retired for fifteen years. BJ is the author of six novels.

Ralph Gillum wrote and had published essays and poetry during his high school and college days. He resumed his interest in writing after meeting fellow retiree and author, Jim Gibson. Ralph edited and published Mountain Musings, a collection of essays and poetry written by his father, Henry Gillum. He has since written The Beagle Breeder’s Forum and Training the Traditional Brace Beagle. Ralph is a longtime resident of Northville, Michigan.

Thomas Gluzinskiis a seasoned contributor to the Old Mountain anthology series of poetry and prose anthologies and has published in other areas as well. His poetry is generated by his life experiences and subject matter that peaks his interest. He writes with many different styles and most of his work is thought provoking in form. He is working on three personal collections and a private website to showcase his work and the work of others.

Phyllis Jean Green lives in Chapel Hill, NC. Her writings have appeared in print since 1986 when Buffalo Spree sent her a check for a poem that she lovingly framed and hung. After she came to, that is. Since then, checks have been few and far between, but her love of writing just gets stronger.

Marian Gowan is author of Notes from the Trunk, published by Old Mountain Press (www.oldmp.com/mariangowan.htm). She contributed to American Patchwork, St. Martins Press. Her work has appeared in several Old Mountain Press anthologies, as well as Christmas Presence, and Clothes Lines, edited by Celia Miles and Nancy Dillingham. She retired to Hendersonville, NC in 2001.

Kerri Mai Habben lives in Raleigh, NC where she works as a writer, photographer, and local historian.A graduate of both Peace College and NC State University, her articles, essays, and poetry have appeared in literary journals, the News and Observer, and other publications.She is currently at work on a novel set in 1929.

Mark E. Harden is a retired U.S. Army Chief Warrant Officer 3.He currently manages Veterans Affairs at Austin Community College in Austin, Texas. His poems have been published in the Rio Review, the Red River Review, and in Windhover Journal. He lives in Georgetown, Texas with his wife, Kathy.

MaXine Carey Harker lives in the one-stop-light town of Grifton NC. Came from the deserts of Idaho to the lushness ofEastern NC. She’sbeen writing something, somewhere with pencil, pen, typewriter, computer all of her 82 years. Appeared in national, state and local publications. Hastaught Writing for Publication (30 years) at: PCC and CCC, now the Recreation Dept. in New Bern, NC. Her cat (15) is namedPaper for good reason.

Wynne Huddleston is a music teacher and is a member of the Mississippi Poetry Society and the Mississippi Writers Guild. Ms. Huddleston’s poetry has been/will be published in Birmingham Arts Journal, Southern Women’s Review, Enchanted Conversation, Gemini Magazine, Camroc Press Review, From the Porch Swing, Raven Chronicles, Grandmother Earth, Calliope Nerve, Pond Ripples Magazine, EarthSpeak Magazine, Short, Fast and Deadly, Stymie Magazine, The Battered Suitcase, New Fairy Tales, and elsewhere. Her website is www.wynnehuddleston.wordpress.com

Arnie Johanson is a philosophy professor from Minnesota who retired to Durham, NC in 1999. He currently resides in Durham and, in the summers, in Minneapolis. His poems have appeared in various periodicals and anthologies, and he has published two chapbooks, A Man and A Horse and Coffee, Songs & Snakes: Sonnets for Grandma.

Jerry Judge lives in Cincinnati with his gorgeous wife, Michele, and two imperial felines. He has work in several journals and has published seven chapbooks. His latest is Night Talk in the Barracks published by Pudding House Publications in 2010.

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. KD and his wife Sara Lynn live in Raleigh, NC.

Jo Koster teaches at Winthrop University and was a finalist for the 2010 Carrie Cray Nicholls Fellowship from the South Carolina Academy of Poets. Recent work has appeared in the collection Traveling Time (Old Mountain Press) and a new chapbook, Nine Days’ Wonder, will appear in 2011. She and her cats Max and Neville live in comfortable chaos and in Rock Hill, SC.

Patsy Kennedy Lain’s desire to write blossomed as a young woman, and lay dormant due to life’s responsibilities for years. Now older, her dream and passion to write grows like the rush of water running downhill, and her journey continues both in writing as well as painting. She lives in Hubert, NC.

Blanche L. Ledford’s work has appeared in Traveling Time, Southern Mist, Lights in the Mountains, Echoes Across the Blue Ridge, and many other publications. She received first place in the Cherokee County Silver Arts Contest for her essay, Planting by the Signs. She resides in Hayesville, NC and enjoys gardening.

Brenda Kay Ledford’s work has appeared in Traveling Time, Southern Mist, Asheville Poetry Review, Echoes Across the Blue Ridge, and many other journals. She’s a member of NC Writers’ Network and listed with A Directory of American Poets and Fiction Writers. Brenda resides in Hayesville, NC. Her blog is:

www.blueridgepoet.blogspot.com.

Mike Lythgoe’s poem first appeared in Visions/Revisions published as a chapbook by The Ink Drop Press in Painter, VA. He has published BRASS and HOLY WEEK, a full collection of poems. He has recent work in Windhover. He teaches classes in The Academy For Lifelong Learning at USCA in Aiken, SC where he lives with his wife, Louise.

Al Manning is a retired Naval officer, and a retired college instructor. He is on the Board of Directors for the North Carolina Writers’ Network, and is the Chatham County representative for the network. Al now lives in Pittsboro, NC.

David Treadway Manning lives with his wife Doris in Cary, NC and has work in various journals, seven chapbooks, and two full-length collections, The Flower Sermon (Main Street Rag, 2007) and Yodeling Fungus (Old Mpuntain Press, 2010)

Halle Meyer lives in Raleigh, NC with her husband and three children. She has published several pieces with Old Mountain Press.

Celia Miles is a retired community college instructor and the author of five novels and two short story collections. She is co-editor of two anthologies of western NC women writers’ works: Christmas Presence and Clothes Lines with a third expected out in 2011. She lives in Asheville, NC. www.celiamiles.com

Jerome Norris lives with his beautiful wife alongside a pond near New Bern, NC. He writes all sorts of nonsense, some of which actually gets published from time to time.

Martha O’Quinn lives and writes in Hendersonville, NC. She has lived her adult life in four other southern states. Her accent, as well as her poetry and family stories, reflect a true southern heritage. Her work has appeared in a number of OMP anthologies as well as regional anthologies and publications. Most recently, one of her poems was published in the February 2011 issue of A Long Story Short.

Megan Oteri grew up in Chicago and Wyoming, but now lives in Wilson, NC with her husband and newborn son.Publishing credits include:This Day: Diaries of American Women, Eagles of Light, Cowgirl, Rodeo News, Mamalode, and various anthologies. . She misses her native land, Wyoming, but is currently enjoying the MA in English (Creative Writing) program at ECU. Her writing and photos can be found at www.memomuse.wordpress.com. and www.meganoteri.wordpress.com

D. Davis Phillips is currently pursuing an M.A. in English at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, SC. He recently won an award for a critical essay on Jonathan Swift published in The Sigma Tau Delta Review, and his poetry has most recently appeared in the Atlantic Pacific Press as well as the OMP Anthologies Traveling Time, Just Between Us, They That Go Down to the Sea, You Gotta Love ‘em, and Exit 109.

Patricia Podlipec was a first grade teacher for more than twenty years. After retiring, she and her husband moved to Hendersonville, NC, where she became interested in writing poetry. Her poems have appeared in Kakalak, a few Old Mountain Press Anthologies, Clothes Lines, Western North Carolina Woman, Heart Magazine, Great Smokies Review Online Publication and Long Story Short Newsletter.

Edwina Rooker grew up in Warrenton, NC. Now she lives in Bridgeton, NC on the Neuse River. Her work has appeared in several Old Mountain Press anthologies. Her newspaper column, Observations, appears in The Warren Record.

Joyce Richardson’s work has been anthologized in Writing on Walls, Love After Seventy, Bedpan Banter, and Mountain Magic. Her most recent chapbook of poetry is Delia’s Gone published by Finishing Line Press. Joyce’s mystery novel, Nude Descending a Staircase,will appear in the spring of 2011 from Museitup Publishing. Joyce lives in Athens, OH, with her writer-husband, Phil.

(Dr.) Lynn Veach Sadler, (former) college president, editor, poet, fiction/creative nonfiction writer, and playwright, is widely published in academics and creative writing. She has six chapbooks and another and a full-length collection in press. One story appears in Del Sol’s Best of 2004 Butler Prize Anthology; a novel will soon join her novella and short-story collection. From Sanford, NC, she has traveled around the world five times and works full-time writing and editing.

Susie Sadowski, previously published a short short, “Twisted Sisters” in Just Between Us. A retired school psychologist and technical writer from Aiken, SC, she is mused by a fellow contributor to these Anthologies. Susie frequently composes while she cleans the house, thus cleaning out her mind at the same time. Currently, she is experimenting with sonnets and villanelles.

Joanna Catherine Scott currently lives in Chapel Hill, NC and is the author of the prizewinning poetry collections Breakfast at the Shangri-la, Fainting at the Uffizi, and Night Huntress; and the prizewinning chapbooks Birth Mother and Coming Down from Bataan. Her website is www.joannacatherinescott.com.

Judy Lewis Shackleford grew up in Atlanta and wrote a weekly column for the Atlanta Journal before moving to N.C. where she wrote about dogs for the Fayetteville Observer. Her interest in dogs led her to a career of instructing people and dogs in the art of understanding dog behavior through obedience training. Being a romantic has led her writing to encompass love in all it’s aspects. She lives with her husband and a house full of rescued dogs in Fayetteville, NC.

Marian Kaplun Shapiro, thrice Senior Poet Laureate of Massachusetts, is the author of a professional book, many journal articles, about 200 published poems, and three books of poetry. A Quaker and a psychologist, she is a devotée of the study of the soul. She currently lives in Lexington, MA.

Sybil Austin Skakle lives in Chapel Hill, NC. Since her retirement from hospital pharmacy in 1990 she has published four books and contributed to many anthologies. A book of poetry, Searchings- rocks revelations -rainbows was her first, published in 2001; followed by an early memoir, Confessions of an Outer Banks Filly.

Susan Snowden is a freelance book editor based in western NC. Her poems have appeared in numerous literary journals and anthologies. She has received awards for her poetry from Writer’s Digest magazine, the Appalachian Writers’ Association, the Writer’s Workshop (Asheville), Coos Bay Writers (Oregon), Kennesaw State University (Atlanta), and others.

NANCY SOLLOSI lives in Jamestown, NC. During the day she fulfills the obligations of a demanding career. She calls it her “gig”. She strives to keep it fun with a healthy, albeit twisted, sense of humor. By night she pursues her passion for the written word and dreams of being a zebra among a herd of wild horses. Mostly, she just wants to graze by the sea.

Susan Sonnen’s poetry and short stories have appeared in previous Old Mountain Press anthologies and various online literary journals, including tinywords and Postcard Shorts. Susan Sonnen lives a quiet life of reading and writing in Chicago, IL.

D. A. Spruzen grew up near London, England, earned an MFA in Creative Writing from Queens University of Charlotte and teaches writing in Northern Virginia. Her short stories and poems have appeared in many publications. Her novel, Not One of Us, is available on Kindle and NOOK. She recently earned third place in the Tom Howard Poetry Contest for her epic poem, Sphinx Dust. She and her husband live in McLean, Virginia.

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.

Cassie Premo Steele’s poetry has been twice nominated for the Pushcart Prize. She is the author of seven books of fiction, non-fiction and poetry. She is a creativity coach who sees clients in person and long-distance from her Co-Creating Studio along a little creek in South Carolina. Her website is www.cassiepremosteele.com. She currently lives in Columbia, SC.

Nancy T. Sturdivant is a retired minister of the United Methodist Church and for many years lived and worked in NJ. She is also trained as a nurse. Nancy enjoys studying and writing about the world and its people and how they react to what is going on around them. Her greatest desire is to continue reading, writing, learning and teaching new things as long as she lives. She now resides in Chapel Hill, NC.

Jo Barbara Taylor lives in Raleigh, NC. Her poems have appeared in Bay Leaves, Ibbetson Street, included in The Sound of Poets Cooking, Exit 109 and You Gotta Love ‘Em anthologies, in Bee Culture, on New Verse News and in The Broad River Review. Her chapbook One Or Two Feathers was released in fall 2010 by Plan B Press. She edits the newsletter for the NC Poetry Society.

Evelyne Weeks lives in Rock Hill, South Carolina, where she has taught English at Winthrop University since 1989. Her work has been published in The Hollins Critic, Appalachian Heritage, and Out of the Rough: Women’s Poems of Survival and Celebration. Her most recent Old Mountain Press publication was in Traveling Time.

Charles “Hawk” Weyantlives in Fayetteville, NC, where he has been a member of Writers Ink Guild for over twenty years. His poems have been published in more than a dozen anthologies and he read on Public Radio for ten years. He is a true imagist poet and his book An Odyssey In Broken Rhythms And Ragged Lines was nominated for a Pushcart Award.

Stella Ward Whitlock is a writer of poetry, short fiction, essays, and articles. A retired schoolteacher and university instructor, she is the mother of four and grandmother of seven. She currently lives in the independent living section of the Glenaire Retirement Community in Cary, NC.

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 on an airstrip outside Winterville, NC.

Nancy H. Womack’s poetry has appeared in Appalachian Heritage, The Thomas Wolfe Review, Teaching English in the Two-Year College, The Mentor, and previous OMP publications. In addition to writing, she enjoys reading, gardening, entertaining friends and family, including her grandchildren, and playing the viola in a local orchestra. She lives in Rutherfordton, NC.

Barbara Ledford Wright an associate editor to Moonshine and Blind Mules anthology was published in several Old Mountain Press anthologies, including Traveling Time. Some other credits include 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, Fresh Literary Magazine, Mused Literary Magazine, and Bread ‘N Molasses Magazine.

C. Pleasants York has long been a collector of words -- and antique Valentines, porcelain dolls, and purple cows. She is the author of two books of poetry,Pleasantries amd Weaver of Destiny, and a novel, Dream Within a Dream.She and her husband, Guy, served for 14 years as Membership Chairs of The North Carolina Poetry Society. C. Pleasants York was Lee County Arts Council President for four years in Sanford, NC.

Joseph Youngblood is a professional mental/behavioral healthcare therapist. He writes for pleasure about things that interest him. He has contributed to several OMP anthologies and currently lives in Fayetteville, NC.