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Matthew G. Adams is busy contemplating new ideas and ways to express them. He looks forward to a future fueled with creativity. He lives in Onslow County, NC. 

Sandra Ervin Adams has been published in literary journals, anthologies, and her poetry chapbooks, Union Point Park Poems and Through A Weymouth Window. She is working on a chapbook about Swansboro, NC, does volunteer readings at senior centers, and hosts a yearly Poetry Cafe at the Craven County Library in New Bern, NC. Sandra lives near Jacksonville where she takes part in Open Mic Poetry Readings at the Council for the Arts.

JoAnna Arnold lives in Americus, Georgia, with her husband and three children. She teaches French and Spanish at a local high school and serves as an adjunct professor of French at South Georgia State College. 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 programs in Haiti and Costa Rica. 

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Katherine Russell Barnes, who lives in Wilson, NC, has a passion for words that inspires her to write, despite her loss of vision. Her work has been published in many magazines and anthologies including Crucible, Pembroke Magazine, Here’s to the Land, Earth and Soul, and Weymouth. Her collections of poetry Treading Water and Mornings at McDonnell’s (to be nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2013) were published by Old Mountain Press. An award-winning poet, she served on the boards and was active in the NC poetry organizations for many years.

Joann Bishop had two of her poems accepted last year by Barton Student Literary Journal. She is attending Barton College and will graduate soon. She plans on writing poetry and short stories as her ongoing project. She lives in Jacksonville, NC.

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Vicki Collins teaches English and Critical Inquiry at The University of South Carolina Aiken. Her poetry has appeared in Kakalak, Windhover, The Teacher’s Voice, Barbaric Yawp, and several Old Mountain Press issues. Her prose pieces are published in MoonShine Review. She and her golfer husband live in Graniteville, SC. 

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Joy W. Davis wrote her first “book of poems” when she was a child. Now she is a published poet and has had her poems published in newspapers, books and on Writers and Poetry Alliance. She writes in free-verse which is a style she prefers, her poems are about anything from nature to math. Her passion is making the words come alive. She lives in Laurel Hill, NC with her 13 year old daughter.

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 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 lives in Webster, NC.

Beth Dragon writes commercial non fiction and light poetry. She has won prizes in the Journal Inquirer Limerick Contest, the Freshwater Poetry Magazine annual contest, Tom Howard Poetry Contest and the Phoenix Writers’ 2011 contest. Dr. Dragon has edited several in-house publications and her work has appeared in a variety of magazines and newsletters. She currently resides in a Greenville, South Carolina retirement community with an eclectic group of people and two adopted cats.

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Terri Kirby Erickson is the author of three collections of poetry, including In the Palms of Angels (Press 53), winner of a Nautilus Silver Award and a Gold Medal for Poetry in the Next Generation Indie Book Awards.Her work has appeared in Ted Kooser’s American Life in Poetry, 2013 Poet’s Market, storySouth, JAMA, The Christian Science Monitor and many others, and has won numerous awards.Visit her website at:www.terrikirbyerickson.wordpress.com

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Dena M. Ferrari is a regular contributor to OMP. Her poetry is featured in Westchester Community College of NY Phoenix (1975); placed several times in Fields of Earth, sponsored by the Writers’ Ink Guild; in Charles Weyant’s book, An Odyssey in Broken Rhythms and Ragged Lines (2006). Writers Alliance Poets World-Wide anthologies has many of her works. Dena’s own book, Poems From the Hearth (2010) shows diversified writing styles. 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, Boundless, A Time to Read A Time to Write and other anthologies and school publications. She is a member of Bay Area Writers League, Golf Coast Poets, Poetry Society of Texas and Osher Lifetime Learning Institute at UTMB, Galveston. Ann lives in Friendswood, TX. 

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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. He also wrote The Last Ride, a traditional western set outside Tucson, Arizona. All six novels are available at www.PentacleSPresS.com. The Anasazi Quest series is also available through Old Mountain Press, Amazon.com, and Barnes & Noble.

Nina Prescott Godwin born in Dartmouth, Mass. is married to a retired doctor and living in Fayetteville, N.C. She was introduced early on to poetry by several outstanding English teachers. Amy Lowell, New England poet was a favorite as well as an Aunt who wrote and published poetry. Nina began creating early in life but , after raising four children, there is more time today for periods of reflection and the joy of putting thoughts into words and having them published.

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 regional publications and Old Mountain Press anthologies, as well as Christmas Presence, Clothes Lines and Women’s Spaces Women’s Places, edited by Celia Miles and Nancy Dillingham. She retired to the NC mountains from western NY in 2001. 

Phyllis Jean Green reads, writes, and loafs with her husband and two equally spoiled and undisciplined dogs within a hoot-an’-holler of her alma mater, UNC-Chapel Hill.Within barks may be apter.Apter wasn’t a word, she just declared it one.

Robin Greene is Professor of English and Writing, Director of the Writing Center, and Editor of Longleaf Press at Methodist University in Fayetteville, NC. Greene is author of four books and publishes regularly in journals. 

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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 articles, essays, and poetry have appeared in literary journals, The News and Observer, and other publications. She is currently at work on a collection of her essays.

MaXine Carey Harker and husband Berkley, have lived 57+ 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 30+ years at Community Colleges, now Rec Center in New Bern. MaXine is 84; her doctor tells her she is 65. 

Niels Hav is a full time poet and short story writer living in Copenhagen with awards from The Danish Arts Council. In English he has the collection We Are Here and writes for magazines such as The Literary Review, Ecotone, Exile and The Los Angeles Review. In his native Danish, he is the author of six collections of poetry and three books of short fiction. His work has been translated into Arabic, Turkish, Dutch, Spanish and Chinese. 

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://)

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Heather Lynn Keeley is currently attending her third year at Western Carolina University majoring in Middle Grades Education in English and Social Sciences. Heather Lynn is a Northern “transplant” moving to North Carolina five years ago. At a young age Heather Lynn discovered her passion of telling stories. When she entered high school, she finally introduced her pen to unused notebooks. You can find more of Heather Lynn’s work as HLKeeley on www.Hubpages.com. 

K.D. Kennedy Jr. has published three books of poetry, short stories, and essays Our Place In Time, Waiting Out In The Yard, and For Rhyme Or Reason. He has published works in over twenty anthologies and periodicals. He has four children: A Broadway Leading Lady, A President of a Corporation, A Real Estate Developer, and A Mother of four children. He humbly gives thanks to his wife of forty-six years, Sara Lynn.

Jo Koster teaches at English Winthrop University, where she spends much time on administrative duties and not enough on finishing her new chapbook, Nine Days’ Wonder. Recent work has appeared in the collection A Time to Read, A Time to Write (Old Mountain Press) and various scholarly journals. She and her cats Max, Neville, and sometimes Tippy live in comfortable chaos and in Rock Hill, SC.

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Patsy Kennedy Lain still lives and frolics in Hubert, NC. She continues to write feverishly and paint passionately. Patsy has many published works, several awards and remains a member in the North Carolina Poetry Society. 

Blanche L. Ledford’s work has appeared in A Time to Read A Time to Write, The Nature of Things, and other Old Mountain Press anthologies. She received first place in the Cherokee County Silver Arts Contest, and the Paul Green Award from North Carolina Society of Historians for her book, Planting by the Signs. Blanche resides in Hayesville, NC.

Brenda Kay Ledford resides in Hayesville, 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, Asheville Poetry Review, Main Street Rag, Appalachian Heritage, and other journals. She received the Paul Green Award in 2012 for her blog: www.historicalhayesville.blogspot.com. 

Michael Lythgoe was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2012. He read his poetry at UMHB in Texas recently. He will read again in September 2013 at a regional Christianity and Literature conference in Houston, TX. His poems and reviews have appeared recently in Windhover, Spillway, Cairn, Santa Fe Review, Slant, Remembrances Of Wars Past. Mike lives in Aiken, SC.

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Celia Miles lives in Asheville, NC, long retired, still traveling checking out old grist mills and stone circles, and writing. Her sixth novel is coming out this spring. 

George E. Mullin III, also known as Sean, passed away in 2011 at 62 years old. He was a gifted and accomplished musician, composer, artist and writer. He wrote Henry’s Fat Fingers, a piano tutorial. He lived on Venice Beach for many years where he excelled in real estate. His last years were spent with his mother, in Hayesville, NC in the house on Lake Chatuge that he designed and built with her. His work was submitted with permission of his family by Linda Smith a frequent contributor to OMP Anthologies.

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Jerome Norris is a retired lawyer who lives by a peaceful pond near New Bern, NC with Mary Anne, his gorgeous wife of fifty-three years. He’s been published in a number of off-brand magazines, newspapers and compendiums, but was never tempted to quit his day job, back when he had one.

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Beverly Ohler is a theater designer and teacher at Warren Wilson College who loves to write. She has four books to her credit and is included in many magazines and anthologies. Most summers and vacations are spent near the ocean on The Isle of Palms near Charleston, SC, reminiscent of the days of her childhood summers at the Jersey shore.

Martha O’Quinn’s work has appeared in previous OMP anthologies as well as other regional anthologies and publications. Her writing focuses on poetry and creative non-fiction based on a true southern heritage. She is mother of two, grandmother of four and great-grandmother of Penelope Rose. Martha and her husband live in Hendersonville, NC. 

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Edwina Rooker grew up in Warrenton, NC. She holds an AB in English from Duke University and a MSLS from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She taught English or worked as a media specialist in Southern Pines, Virginia Beach, and Warren County. She retired to Bridgeton, NC, on the Neuse River. Her newspaper column, Observations, appears in the weekly Warren Record. Today she lives at The Courtyards at Berne Village in New Bern.

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.

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Lynn Veach Sadler is widely published in academic and creative writing and is a native North Carolinian and a former college president. She has eight poetry chapbooks (another forthcoming) and four full-length collections and over 100 short stories published. She has published four novels, a novella, and a short story collection and has written 40 plays. Lynn lives in Sanford, NC.

Judy Lewis Shackleford grew up in Atlanta, GA and wrote a weekly column for the Atlanta Journal before moving to NC 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.

Joe Shevlin, Jr. is a retired Navy Captain and retired HR Manager who has written two unpublished novels and a number of short stories. He lives in Plymouth, MI. 

Rishan Singh lives in KwaZulu-Natal in the city of Durban in South Africa. His poetry has appeared in numerous journals and books, and he has also written short stories and fiction. In addition to scientific pursuits, he has received numerous awards and state scholarships for his poetry internationally, including an invite to the World Congress of Poets conference in Larissa, Greece in 2011. He had a contract with the United Nations. 

Linda M. Smith moved to Hayesville, NC, in 1989. Inspired by the change from Florida she began to write poetry. She joined the NC Writers Network West where she studied poetry in their many critique sessions and classes. She is the current coordinator of its members monthly reading at the John C. Campbell Folk School. Her poems have appeared in FutureCycle 2012, Echoes Across The Blue Ridge, Remember When and ten other anthologies. 

Susan Snowden’s work has appeared in more than forty literary journals and anthologies. Her novel Southern Fried Lies was published in August 2012 by Archer Hill. Based in western NC, Susan is also a freelance book editor (fiction and nonfiction). Visit her website at www.SnowdenEditorial.com.

Nancy Sollosi of Jamestown, NC is a regular contributor to the Old Mountain Press anthologies. As a child, with the endless chores, the best thing about summer seemed to be the break from school. Her appreciation for each season grows exponentially as this one dissolves into the next. She only hopes that she has created such lasting memories for her own children.

Susan Spalt’s poems have appeared in Pine Song, a publication of the NC Poetry Society, Bay Leaves, a publication of the NC Poetry Council, Mistletoe Madness, Kind of a Hurricane Press, andCarrboro’s 100th Birthday Poetry Anthology. Susan is one of four poets published in Carrboro Poetica (Old Mountain Press, 2012). She is a member of the Carrboro Poets Council of Carrboro, NC.

Dorothea Spiegel, age 91, lives in Gainesboro, TN, near mountain forests and the Cumberland River, which help her poetry efforts. She has been a member of writers’ clubs in Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee, has read at John Campbell Folk School, has been published in several anthologies and has won prizes.

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. Also a novelist, Dorothy’s short stories and poems have appeared in many publications, including Southern Women’s Review, Old Mountain Press and Lunarosity. “Wishful Dreaming” is an earlier version of a poem from her chapbook Long in the Tooth, which will be published in June 2013 by Finishing Line Press. She and her husband live in Northern Virginia.

Debra Squyres writes poetry, using free-verse, tanka, haiku and other poetic forms. She has been writing for several years and has won four poetry contests sponsored by poetry sites on the web as well as members contests on another. Living in Georgetown, LA, she enjoys her quiet time to write and is an avid reader on several poetry sites. 

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.

Shelby Stephenson’s most recent publication is a chapbook from Finishing Line Press:Play My Music Anyhow (2013). He lives near McGee’s Cross Roads, outside Benson, NC.

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Evelyne Weeks is a writer of both poetry and prose.Her work has been published in The Hollins Critic, Appalachian Heritage, and Out of the Rough: Womens Poems of Survival and Celebration.The Battle is her collection of poems about growing up in the mountains. Today she lives in Rock Hill, South Carolina, where she has taught English at Winthrop University since 1989.

Charles “Hawk” Weyant and his wife Johanna live in Fayetteville, NC, where he has been a member of Writers’ Ink Guild for thirty years. His work has appeared in over twenty anthologies and he read on Public Radio for ten years. His book An Odyssey In Broken Rhythms And Ragged Lines was nominated for a Pushcart Award. He is also a decorated, battle scarred veteran of Vietnam.

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. 

Charlotte Wolf shares residence with four cats in Hendersonville, NC. She moved to these beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains eighteen years ago from Bucks County, PA. (Pearl Buck and Michener country). In recent years her poems and short stories have appeared in various local anthologies and magazines which she attributes to the good counsel and steady encouragement of some wonderful women writers, including instructors from The Great Smokies Writing Program of UNCA.

Barbara Ledford Wright a frequent contributor to Old Mountain Press anthologies includes A Time to Read A Time to Write. She has published works in several anthologies and periodicals. She enjoys family history and writing stories about her family. She presently lives in Shelby, NC.

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C. Pleasants York of Sanford, NC, remembered her pink flops in 2012 when she and her husband, Guy, made a pilgrimage to Florida so he could go diving on the wreck of The Atocha, a Spanish galleon that sank in 1622 near Key West. Visiting many of the same places first seen when she was five, York drank lots of orange juice, but no longer at ALL YOU CAN DRINK FOR 10 CENTS A GLASS.

Joseph Youngblood lives in Fayetteville, NC with his family. He has contributed to several previous anthologies, and writes for pleasure.