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Endearing Holidays      Patsy Kennedy Lain   Worthy reasons for enhancing holidays unfold as one offers funds previously lavished on gifts not needed, spent in turn to furnish food, shelter for less fortunate. Kindly break loose, bypass today’s pricey products, pledge to provide joyful comfort to innocent children, others with meager means, minimal daily needs. Do more than stacking, stuffing unwanted goods on a shelf, in a drawer, or packing, piling presents in a closet until thrown away, give to a social group this year. Inspire yourself, forgo accepting, dispensing items that sooner or later end up tossed, trashed as storage needs arise, urge donors to support a chosen charity. Share a meal with hunger, entice, engage an outsider to roost, rest feed mercy, grace goodwill toward homeless, devote time to lone souls, spread solace. PATSY KENNEDY LAIN continues to live in Hubert, NC, writing and painting. She has works published in Old Mountain Press Anthologies, several magazines and other anthologies. Patsy finds inspiration for both writing and painting in day to day activities. She often visits hometowns from which her and family lived that bring back lots of memories and tales to tell.

Destiny Celia Miles   LOTS OF US have been taken. The rest of us wait—with hope. Anticipation has been wafting through our mountain neighborhood for days.      Here they come. Immobile, sturdy, we listen for the sounds we were born to hear. Who will be chosen this time? Me! I’m chosen!      I must have swooned with excitement. As I’m picked up, I see the bereft, the unchosen. But there’s still time for them. I try to wave but am bundled tightly.      I am the only one moving out. Suddenly I’m lonely. After all, we’ve grown up together. I drift in the onslaught of traffic noise. Then calloused hands, gentle voices. "Careful. Don’t drop…"      I’m carried into a dimly lit entry where a sacred silence cushions the muffed sounds below. Down stairs we go. A chorus of young voices greets us. Up one step and I stand tall. Dozens of children cluster near as I am unbound. Little hands touch me, tots with fingers in their mouths or noses stare. Smiles and squeals abound.      A large armchair occupies the center of the stage. Across the way I recognize a neighbor standing proudly. I am not alone. Large boxes are opened. Choices are made, and after more than an hour we are dressed for the occasion. We shine with baubles, bows, balls, figurines, miniature animals, soldiers, toys, tinsel. A boy climbs a ladder and a large star completes my ensemble. I am beautiful. But not finished.      A heavy string is wrapped around me to more murmurs of "Careful."      Blink! I glow. A vivid rainbow of colors without the rain. Surely that’s not snow falling! I see my neighbor is similarly adorned. Mirror images, we twinkle with delight.      To "oohs" and "ahhs," children and grownups alike, circle to admire us from every angle. We are pronounced perfect. I sigh, happy.      This is what I was planted for. CELIA HOOPER MILES, a Jackson County native, lives, edits, writes in Asheville, NC. Old grist mills and Neolithic sites are her passion; her fiction reflects both. Her nine novels and two short story collections are available in independent regional bookstores, online and on Kindle; two, Mattie’s Girl and Sarranda are on Audible Books. Sarranda’s Legacy, completing the Sarranda trilogy set in Jackson County, came out in 2018.

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J.S. Absher has published three books of poetry, including Mouth Work, winner of the 2015 Lena Shull Award from the North Carolina Poetry Society. He recently won the Clinton F. Larson Poetry Prize from BYU Studies Quarterly. His poems have appeared in more than 50 journals and anthologies. He lives in Raleigh with his wife, Patti.

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Sam Barbee poems appeared in Poetry South, The NC Literary Review, Crucible, Asheville Poetry Review, Main Street Rag, The Southern Poetry Anthology VII: North Carolina; plus on-line journals Vox Poetica, Sky Island Journal, Courtland Review, and Blue Hour.  His second poetry collection, That Rain We Needed (2016, Press 53), was a nominee for the Roanoke-Chowan Award as one of North Carolina’s best poetry collections of 2016; and is a Pushcart nominee.

Marcia Hawley Barnes is a Georgia writer and poet.  Publishing credits include “Tightrope” in Stone, River, Sky: An Anthology of Georgia Poems, Negative Capability Press; and “White-out” in Tis the Season, Old Mountain Press.  In 2017, Ms. Barnes was awarded the Georgia Author of the Year Award in the Children’s Book Category for Tobijah, her first children’s book.  In 2019, the sequel, A Day with Tobijah was published.  The author lives in Towns County, GA.

Frederick W. Bassett is a retired academic who turned to creative writing late in life. His poems have appeared widely in anthologies and journals, including Atlanta Review, Illuminations, Mudfish, Negative Capability, Passager, Pembroke Magazine, POEM, Slant, The Cape Rock, Timberline Review, Yemassee, Zone 3. This Fall, he will publish a revised and expanded edition of The Old Stoic Faces the Mirror: A Life in Poems. An Alabama native, Bassett currently live in Greenwood, SC, near son Jonathan and family.

Marcie Behm-Bultz is a population scientist who bases her writing in human geography and exotic locations.  Her literary work has been featured in multiple publications, including eleven Old Mountain Press anthologies, Borderlines, The Deadly Writers Patrol annual magazine and the South Carolina Writer’s Association 2018 Petigru Review.  She is a 2018/2019 Pushcart Prize nominee and a member of the Savannah River Poets.

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Vicki Collins, who lives in Graniteville, SC, recently retired from the University of South Carolina Aiken where she taught English for thirty years. Her work appears in Kakalak, Moonshine Review, Windhover, Carolina Woman, Amarillo Bay, The Georgia Philological Association Journal, and many Old Mountain Press anthologies. Her book, The Silent Appalachian: Wordless Mountaineers in Fiction, Film, and Television was published by McFarland in 2017.

Steve Cushman earned an MFA from UNC-Greensboro. He’s published three novels and his first full-length poetry collection, How Birds Fly, is the winner of the 2018 Lena Shull Book Award

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Phebe Davidson is a contributing editor at Tar River Poetry and a staff writer for The Asheville Poetry Review. She has been nominated six times for a Push Cart Prize and holds a number of national poetry awards, among them the Kinloch Rivers, Amelia, Soundpost Press and Ledge Press manuscript prizes. Her most recent book, What Holds Him to this World holds the 2014 South Carolina Poetry Archives prize.

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, Special Warfare., and Winston-Salem Writers’ POETRY IN PLAIN SIGHT program for May 2013 (poetry month). He’s authored several books. Tom has recently completed his memoir, The Most Fun I ever Had With My Clothes On A March from Private to Colonel. He lives in Webster, NC.

Suzanne Delaney is a Retired Registered Nurse Certified in Med/Surg. Since retiring she has participated in poetry groups both in the Community and on-line. She was born in Tasmania, Australia, and  lived in the Hawaiian Islands for most of her adult life.  She now resides in Asheville, NC.  Her poetry is a mixture from all these  places.  Her poems are included in an anthology’s  A Bridge to ALL Nations. with other poets from  Connie’s site: Poetry for Thought.

Nancy Dillingham’s poetry, short fiction, and commentaries have been published in various venues such as Asheville Poetry Review, Great Smokies Review, Poetry in Plain Sight Project,Pine Mountain Sand and Gravel, Red Dirt Forum, Raleigh News & Observer, Asheville Citizen-Times, and Xpress magazine.  Her collection of poems Home was nominated for a SIBA.  Her latest book is Like Headlines: New and Selected Poems, and her forthcoming chapbook is entitled Revelation.  She lives in Asheville, NC.

Carol Ruth Dreiling’s writing recently appeared in WNC Woman, The Laurel, Sniff and Barkens , Pickaway Quarterly and MycoPhile. Carol’s grandmother kept a diary. She followed her example as a child. A Minneapolis feminist paper published journal she kept while working in a box factory in the 70s. From 1996-1998 Carol edited the WNC newsletter for Parents of Murdered Children. From 1999-2004 Carol edited the Asheville Mushroom Club newsletter. Carol lives in Alexander, NC.

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Dena M. Ferrari is a regular contributor to OMP, her poetry has been featured in Westchester Community College of NY Phoenix (1975), Writers Alliance Poets World-Wide  anthologies has many of her published works. Dena’s own books, Poems From the Hearth (2010) Come Closer My Dearies (2013), Charmed Times Three (2015), and her newest book Wyld Earth Magick (2018) shows diversified writing styles, leaving a Living Legacy for her grandchildren. She and her husband, Peter live in Vass, NC.

Joanne Kennedy Frazer is a retired peace and justice director/educator for faith-based organizations. Penning life’s passions into poetry is the delight and vocation of her silvering years.  Her work has appeared in several anthologies, on-line zines and magazines.   Five of her poems have been turned into a song cycle, Resistance, and performed in Seattle and Durham.  Her chapbook Being Kin was published in 2019.   She lives in Durham, NC.

Peggy Dugan French is a California girl with Minnesota roots. She has been the editor of the small print zine Shemom since 1997.  Her work has appeared in Lilliput, bear creek haiku, Shemom and Whispers.  She has worn many hats over the years, but raising her children has been one of her greatest pleasures. Peggy lives in Cardiff, CA, with her husband, cat and wild garden and blogs at: www.peggyduganfrench.com

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Michael Gaspeny, who lives in Greensboro, NC, is the author of the chapbooks Re-Write Men and Vocation. A third chapbook, The Tyranny of Questions, is forthcoming from Unicorn Press. A novel in verse, it dramatizes the saga of a suburban mom fighting her demons in the 1960s. Gaspeny, winner of the Randall Jarrell Poetry Competition, has also received the North Carolina Governor’s Award for Volunteer Excellence in recognition of his hospice service.

James Gibson, Northville, Michigan, featured Native American culture in the five novels in his “Anasazi Quest” series. His eighth novel,  To Live or Die in Taiwan, was published in February, 2018. Review all his books at www.PentacleSPresS.com .  Anasazi Princess and Anasazi Journey are now available as E-Books on Amazon.com.

Marian Gowan is author of Notes from the Trunk, published by Old Mountain Press. Her work has appeared in many Old Mountain Press anthologies and southern regional publications.   She retired to the NC mountains from western NY in 2001, but in 2017, returned to western NY to be near family.  (mariangowan1@bellsouth.net)

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Kerri Mai Habben is a writer living in Chapel Hill, NC. She is a graduate of Peace College (presently William Peace University) and North Carolina State University. Her work regularly appears in publications throughout the United States and Canada. She enjoys writing fiction and creative nonfiction in addition to poetry.

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K. D. Kennedy, Jr. has published Eight Books (8) books of poetry, short stories, and essays: Our Place On Time, Waiting Out In The Yard, For Rhyme Or Reason, Progenitors: A Kennedy Genealogy, The Works Of K. D. Kennedy, Jr., Poems Worth Remembering, Family...Forever’s Lovesong, and Truth Instead. He has also published works in over forty anthologies and periodicals.

Jo Koster and her cat Max live in Rock Hill, SC, where she teaches at Winthrop University and Max enjoys the fruits of her labors. Her work has appeared in many OMP anthologies, and she is a member of the Executive Board of the South Carolina Academy of Authors.

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Patsy Kennedy Lain continues to live in Hubert, NC, writing and painting. She has works published in Old Mountain Press Anthologies, several magazines and other anthologies. Patsy finds inspiration for both writing and painting in day to day activities. She often visits hometowns from which her and family lived that bring back lots of memories and tales to tell.

Cindy Larson, a native of Fargo, North Dakota, lived with her husband, Jerry, in Connecticut for 33 years. They found Glassy Mountain, Landrum, South Carolina, to be their favorite location for the past 17 years and are now residents of The Woodlands at Furman, Greenville, SC.

Blanche L. Ledford is a native of Clay County, NC.  Her work has appeared in many OMP anthologies, journals, and blogs.  Her book, Planting by the Signs, received the Paul Green Multimedia Award from NC Society of Historians.  She continues to preserve Southern Appalachian heritage through writing and storytelling.

Brenda Kay Ledford is a seventh-generational native of Clay County, NC. Her work has appeared in many OMP anthologies and journals. She received the 2019 Paul Green Multimedia Award from North Carolina Society of Historians for her poetry book, Patchwork Memories. She has received this award a dozen times for her work

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Celia Hooper Miles, a Jackson County native, lives, edits, writes in Asheville, NC. Old grist mills and Neolithic sites are her passion; her fiction reflects both. Her nine novels and two short story collections are available in independent regional bookstores, online and on Kindle; two, Mattie’s Girl and Sarranda are on Audible Books. Sarranda’s Legacy, completing the Sarranda trilogy set in Jackson County, came out in 2018.

Mona Miracle has lived in Kentucky, California, Michigan, Tennessee, and Florida; and since 1989, Asheville, NC. Mona was a featured presenter at South Florida Poetry Society, and a four-category winner in Florida Freelance Writers Annual Competition. Enjoy sample pages of her publications, including the novel Wesley’s Gift at www.Monaraemiracle.com . Amazon provides her ebook and print formats. Mona finds both prehistory and futurism thoroughly inviting as backgrounds for her fiction

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Beverly Ohler’s life has been focused on the theater, teaching, designing, producing festivals, creating art in one form or another, and she loves to write. Growing up in the Northeast, her adult life has primarily been spent on the campus of Warren Wilson College, Asheville, NC. She has written four books, edited others, is published in magazines and anthologies, and now lives in Black Mountain, with her dog, Callie.

Karen O’Leary is a writer and editor from West Fargo, ND. She has published poetry, short stories, and articles in a variety of venues including, Frogpond, Setu, A Hundred Gourds, bear creek haiku, Shemom, Creative Inspirations and  NeverEnding Story. She edited an international online journal called Whispers for 5 ½ years. She enjoys sharing the gift of words. http://whispersinthewind333.blogspot.com/

Penny Olson and her husband live in Weaverville, N.C. with two dogs, an elderly Dachshund and a rescued Affenpinscher. Penny is continually gathering atmospheric details and conjuring characters for her supernatural Murder Mystery. As often as possible, the family enjoys beach combing on Florida’s gulf coast with their son’s family.

Martha O’Quinn lives in Loganville, GA and is a regular contributor to OMP anthologies.  Having lived in five different southern states, her poetry and creative non-fiction prose reflect a true southern heritage.  Her work has appeared in a number of anthologies in print as well as online. She is mother to two, grandmother to four and great-grandmother to four.

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Michael Potts is Professor of Philosophy, Methodist University, Fayetteville, North Carolina, and is author of the novels End of Summer, Unpardonable Sin, Obedience, and the poetry anthologies From Field to Thicket and Hiding from the Reaper. He lives with his wife, Karen, and nine cats in Coats, North Carolina.

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Mary Ricketson, Murphy NC, inspired by nature and her work as a mental health counselor, is published in Journal of Kentucky Studies, Echoes Across the Blue Ridge, other journals, and her collections: Disorgananza, I Hear the River Call my Name, Hanging Dog Creek, Shade and Shelter, Mississippi: The Story of Luke and Marian.

Dwight Roth is a retired elementary school teacher, who grew up in the mountains of Southwestern Pennsylvania. He enjoys writing, poetry, painting, and music. He had his work in several OMP anthologies. He has self-published four memoirs, several books of poetry, and three children’s books. He has nine books or booklets on Amazon Kindle. Dwight and his wife Ruth live near Monroe, NC. He writes daily on his blog: https://rothpoetry.wordpress.com/  .

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Paul Sherman grew up in the panhandle of Northern Idaho with no electricity or running water for a significant portion of his childhood. His poems have appeared in Drum Till You’re Numb and On The Sides of Outhouse Walls. He currently spends much of his time chasing his neighbor’s Brahman cow off his property in the mountains of Burnsville, NC.

Rishan Singh has contributed poems and science articles to international journals and books. In addition, he has also be instrumental in the English language curriculum in South Africa, with an excerpt from one of his poems appearing in an English teaching guide for school learners in 2014. He is a world scholar and has been a driving force for upcoming talent in SA, with events being initiated for the youth at the Playhouse in South Africa.

Dr. David Snyder is a hospital dentist. He is a Magna Cum Laude graduate of Davidson College. He earned his DDS degree and completed his General Dentistry Residency at UNC-CH. His most recent action adventure novel, Life and Death on the Front Nine, is soon to be published by Martin Sisters Publishing under their Christian Fiction imprint. He also authored a previous novel, The Price of Innocence. He lives in Asheville with his wife, Linda.

Shelby Stephenson was Poet Laureate of North Carolina from 2015-2018. His most recent book of poems: Slavery and Freedom on Paul’s Hill, Press 53. He lives on the Century Farm where he was born, about ten miles northwest of Benson.

Lois Greene Stone, writer and poet, has been syndicated worldwide. Poetry and personal essays have been included in hard & softcover book anthologies. Collections of her personal items/ photos/ memorabilia are in major museums including twelve different divisions of The Smithsonian. The Smithsonian selected her photo to represent all teens from the 1940's-50's. She lives in Pittsford, NY.

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Barbara Tate is an award winning artist and writer and is a member of the Haiku Society of American, The British Haiku Society and Haiku Canada. Her work has been published in Storyteller, Santa Fe Literary Review, Modern Haiku, Contemporary Haibun Online, Presence, Blithe Spirit, Wales Haiku Journal, NeverEnding Story, Akitsu Quarterly and Hedgerow, among others. Her work also appears in several anthologies including the last 11 anthologies at Old Mountain Press. She currently resides in Winchester, TN.

Rebekah Timms lives in Greenwood, SC with her cat. She is the mother of four sons, seven grandchildren and three great-granddaughters. She has published a memoir and a collection of poems. She is working on a collection of poems, prose and short stories. Rebekah enjoys writing and feels that her work is an expression of her gratitude and joy of life.

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Glenda S. Wilkins grew up on a North Carolina tobacco farm, and believed she’d never live beyond the county line. Decades later, she moved with her husband to Europe for a dozen years. Her poems have been published in Europe, Great Britain, & North America. Thus far, she appreciates several poetry awards. She lives on an air strip, Winterville, NC.

Barbara Ledford Wright is a quilter, retired teacher, family historian, and belongs to several historical societies.  She has been published in several publications and anthologies, included in the 36 Old Mountain Press Anthology series. Barbara resides in Shelby, NC.

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