Michael Bassett holds an MFA in poetry from Vermont College and a Ph.D. from The University of Southern Mississippi. His poems have appeared in a number of anthologies and journals , including Barrow Street, Cider Press Review, Fugue, Lullwater Review, Poetry Motel, Apostrophe, Coal City Review, Concho River Review, and Kakalak 2006 . Pudding House Publications published his chapbook, Karma Puppets, in 2003. He won the Fugue 4th Annual Poetry Contest, judged by Tony Hoagland and the Joan Johnson Poetry Award in 2004. Currently he teaches, writes and creates visual art in Coconut Creek, Florida.

Laurie Billman is a Clinical Supervisor and therapist for adolescents. She lives in Pittsboro North Carolina. Her husband is an archeology professor and together they have traveled extensively while raising two lovely girls. Her publications include poems in The Rambler, Thirteenth Moon, The MacGuffin and the anthology Not What I Expected The Unperdictable Journey from Womanhood to Motherhood.

Joann Bishop wrote the poem included in this anthology during a visit to Wrightsville Beach. Visits to the beach have inspired her to right several other poems with a beach theme. Joann currently lives in Jacksonville, NC.

Joan Thiel Blessing’s poetry has appeared most recently in Pinesong and Kakalak. The poem selected for this anthology was originally published in The Moonwort Review. After many years in central New Jersey, where she raised her children and worked as an editor, lawyer, and public official, Joan now divides her life between Naples, FL, and Hendersonville, NC.

Ervene Boyd wrote the included poem while visiting Emerald Isle, NC this summer on a meditative retreat. She loves living in her hometown, Raleigh, North Carolina. She has published poems, written and performed poetry but as an ordained metaphysical minister, she devotes most of her time and talents to the joyful job of Officiating Weddings. She also teaches Reiki, a natural energy healing method. As a creative, she writes, (currently working on her second poetry book) paints, (sells her mixed media art in Raleigh, NC and Hilton Head, SC)and decorates by requested appointment. Ervene dedicates as much time as possible to co-creating fun and joy with family, clients and friends. 

Sally Buckner has published two collections and edited two anthologies of North Carolina literature. Her most recent collection, Collateral Damage (Main Street Rag Press), will be published in August, 2007. Grateful for the splendid beaches and mountains that bracket her home state, she lives with her husband Bob in Cary, NC.

Mary Margaret Carlisle, an award-winning American poet and writer, was born in Dallas, Texas. She has been published in various Texas, national, and international literary journals, magazines, and anthologies and her work also appears online in several e-journals and newspapers. Ms. Carlisle is a member of the Poetry Society of Texas, Gulf Coast Poets, Bay Area Writers Guild, Galveston Poets Roundtable, Monday Night Poets, and Women Who Write. She has read her work in many Texas venues, and has been a featured poet of Inprint’s First Friday, at Austin’s Poetry in the Arts, Bay Area Barnes & Noble, and in Dallas for the Poetry Society of Texas. She was a juried poet of the Houston Poetry Fest. She facilitates Poetry Works Workshops, and lives in Webster, Texas. She is Sol Magazine’s Project Director: www.sol-magazine.org.

Barbara Cavanaugh’s work has appeared in several magazines, newspapers, and anthologies. Her chapbook Fire Water contains illustrations by Georgia artist Skeet Pittman. Barbara grew up in Coastal Georgia and currently lives in Cuero, TX, with husband Michael, five horses, two donkeys, Belle the Wonderdog, fifty cows, and countless scorpions and copperheads.

Ed Cockrell is a published poet residing in Chapel Hill, NC where he attends Friday Noon Poets as often as possible. He has served as the corresponding secretary for the North Carolina Poetry Society for many years, and also serves as President of the Poetry Council of North Carolina, Inc. His poem “Fallen” won third place in the NCPS 2007 contest for poems written for children by an adult.

Martha Deed’s chapbook 65X65 was published by Peter Ganick’s Small Chapbook Project (2006). Her poetry and web art installations have appeared in Iowa Review Web (with Millie Niss), Shampoo, Unlikelystories.org, and many other print and online publications. Martha is a retired psychologist who has exchanged the beaches of Cape Cod for the banks of the Erie Canal in North Tonawanda, NY. 

Clarence A. Eden, Jr., of Charlotte, NC, retired. He has been published in Novello Festival Press’s anthology, ‘TIS THE SEASON, SPINNING WORDS INTO GOLD by Maurine Ryan Griffin, third place winner in Beginnings, Thrift, Pinesong, Apostrophe, Kakalak and others. His first book, SEASONINGS, was published in 2006 by Main Street Rag Publishing Co.

Elon G. Eidenier lives in Hillsborough, N.C. His poems have appeared in various journals such as The Tar River Journal, & The Virginia Quarterly. He has published two books of poetry, Sonnets to Eurydice and Draw Flame Catch Fire.

Sue Farlow is the president of the North Carolina Poetry Society. Her poetry has twice been selected as finalists in the Poet Laureate contest sponsored by NCPS. Her work has appeared in national magazines and she is currently working on her first chapbook. She has two grown sons and lives on a 55 acre farm with her husband in Climax, NC.

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

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 Independent Weekly, a Raleigh area publication and in Looking Back, an anthology published by Old Mountain Press.

Phyllis Jean Green won first prize for poetry in the 2007 Dan Sullivan Memorial Contest. Pudding House published her chapbook, Above and Below. Her many credits include Sulphur River, The Pedestal, Kenwood Review, Black Alice, Sensations, and Snow Monkey. She edited Peter Tomassi’s Mixing Cement Thunder-Rain, 2000. Phyllis belongs to NC Poetry Society and Friday Noon Poets. She lives within 10 miles of UNC-Chapel Hill.

ROBIN GREENE is Professor of English and Writing at Methodist University, where she edits Longleaf Press and serves as director of the Writing Center. Greene is author of three books, publishes poetry and nonfiction regularly, and is currently working on novel about an ex-slave. Originally from NY, Greene lives in Fayetteville, NC.

Maria Hartley lives in East Flat Rock, NC, with her family. A licensed professional counselor, Maria focuses on writing poetry and stories about emotional and spiritual healing. She and her colleague, Sara Deutsch, are completing work on a book of healing art and poetry entitled, Secrets of the Dandelion. Her work has previously been published in Different Kind of Parenting and in the Old Mountain Press anthology, Looking Back.

Julie Hensley was raised in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, but she currently lives in Oklahoma with her husband, the writer R. Dean Johnson. She directs the creative writing program at Cameron University. Her poems and stories have appeared in numerous journals, most recently in Ellipsis, Redivider, Phoebe, Quarterly West, and Talking River. 

Maura High lives in Carrboro, NC, where she works as a freelance copy editor and volunteer for The Nature Conservancy’s Prescribed Fire program. Many of her poems draw their inspiration from the varied landscapes of North Carolina.

Karen Luke Jackson facilitates Connecting Role and Soul retreats. In her work, she uses poetry to help people reconnect with what is meaningful in their lives. Karen has written for research journals but is now exploring her own voice through creative writing. Her first poem was published last year in Alive Now. Karen holds a doctoral degree from North Carolina State University and currently lives in Hendersonville, NC, where she enjoys hiking and grandchildren.

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).

Jo Koster teaches medieval literature and writing at Winthrop University and says that most of her creative writing takes place in her checkbook. 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 cats live in comfortable chaos and in Rock Hill, SC.

Susanna Lang’s collection, Even Now, is forthcoming from The Backwaters Press. She has previously published original poems and essays, and translations from the French, in such journals as Kalliope, Southern Poetry Review, World Literature Today, Chicago Review, New Directions, Green Mountains Review, Jubilat and Baltimore Review. Previous book publications include translations of Words in Stone and The Origin of Language, both by Yves Bonnefoy. She won a 1999 Illinois Arts Council award for a poem published in The Spoon River Poetry Review. She lives with her husband and son in Chicago where she teaches at a Chicago Public School.

Blanche L. Ledford’s poetry and prose have appeared in Blue Ridge Guide, Lights in the Mountains, Home for the Holidays, Looking Back, and other publications. She’s an avid reader and member of Georgia Mountain Writers’ Club. Blanche lives in Hayesville, NC.

Brenda Kay Ledford’s work has appeared in Pembroke Magazine, Asheville Poetry Review, Main Street Rag, Looking Back, and other journals. She is listed with A Directory of American Poets and Fiction Writers. Her poetry chapbook, Shew Bird Mountain, was published by Finishing Line Press. Brenda lives in Hayesville, NC.

Michael H. Lythgoe’s collection, BRASS, won the Kinloch Rivers chapbook competition in 2006. Recently he was a featured poet in the Spoletto Sundown Series in Charleston. He also read his poems at The Morris Museum of Art in Augusta and at Malaprops’ book store in Asheville, NC. Mike has an MFA from Bennington College. He has poems forthcoming in The Potomac Review & Permafrost. He lives with his wife, Louise, in Aiken, SC.

Ali Mageehon’s work has appeared in Central Plains Review, and Seedhouse. Though she once lived on a small island in the Pacific Ocean, she now resides in Tularosa, New Mexico.

David Treadway Manning was winner of the North Carolina Poetry Society’s Poet Laureate Award in 1996, 1998 and 2006. A Pushcart nominee, his poems have appeared in a number of journals and five chapbooks: Negotiating Physics, and Poets Anonymous (Old Mountain Press); Out After Dark, and Detained by the Authorities (Pudding House); and The Ice-Carver, winner of the 2004 Longleaf Chapbook Competition. Dave, his wife Doris, and their cat Sheena live in Cary, NC.

Philip S. Morse’s work has appeared in The Journey, The Poets’ Corner, Selected Poems, and Bay Leaves. His poem “My Son Wishing Me Goodbye” won Honorable Mention in the 2007 Gladys Owings Hughes Heritage Category of the NC Poetry Council Contest. He resides with his wife, Judith, in Fearrington Village, NC.

Karol Neufeld’s work has been published in International Poetry Review, More Than Magnolias, and Writers’ Choice. For several years, she has been an award winner in both the North Carolina Poetry Society and Poetry Council annual contests. Once an elementary school teacher, Karol now spends as much time as she can traveling and writing. She currently lives in Greensboro, NC.

A. Conrad Neumann was born and brought up on Martha’s Vineyard Island. He began as a fisherman and, after a long career on and about the ocean, has now recently retired as a Professor Emeritas of Oceanography at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The sea has been an essential part of his life in teaching, research and writing. His poems have appeared in several anthologies. He currently splits his time between the Vineyard and NC. 

Jerome Norris has had poems and short stories published in Tarheel Poetry, Thema, The Rambler, Seven Hills Review, Shoal, and Pinesong and in a previous Old Mountain Press anthology. A retired journalist and lawyer, he lives with his wife (by a beautiful pond) near New Bern, NC. 

Martha O’Quinn is a native of NC now living in Hendersonville, NC. Family stories and poetry reflect her southern heritage. Her non-fiction has been published in The Independent Weekly, a Research Triangle, NC publication, and in Looking Back, an anthology published by Old Mountain Press. 

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

Patricia Podlipec, a native of Kentucky, taught first grade in Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin for a total of twenty-seven years. After retiring, she and her husband relocated to Hendersonville, NC, where she studied creative writing at Blue Ridge Community College and joined a writing group. She recently had a poem published in Kakalak 2007: Anthology of Carolina Poets. Her work also appeared in the anthology, Looking Back.

Michael Potts is a native of Smyrna, TN. His work has appeared in Frisson, Iodine Poetry Journal, Journal of the American Medical Association, Pinesong, and Poems& Plays. His chapbook, From Field to Thicket, won the 2006 Mary Belle Campbell Poetry Book Award of the North Carolina Writers’ Network. He is Professor of Philosophy at Methodist University in Fayetteville, NC, and currently lives in Linden, NC.

Tony Reeve, associate director of the Institute for the Environment at UNC-Chapel Hill, is a graduate of NC State University, UNC-Chapel Hill and Miami University. His books are Ghost Train!, Directory of North Carolina’s Railroad Structures, Green Cove Stop and Magdalena. He resides in Durham, North Carolina with wife, Caroline Weaver, and children Lindley and Ian.

Edwina Rooker grew up in Warrenton, NC, but she spent as many summers as she could at Camp Morehead in Morehead City, NC, as a camper and a counselor. Currently she lives on the Neuse River in Bridgeton, NC, where she writes poetry and nonfiction. Her newspaper column, Observations, appears in the weekly Warren Record. She has won prizes for poetry and nonfiction in six states. Her poem Lost Romance appeared in the Looking Back anthology of Old Mountain Press.

Dr. Lynn Veach Sadler, former college president, 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. One story appears in Del Sol’s Best of 2004 Butler Prize Anthology; another won the 2006 Abroad Writers Contest/Fellowship (France). Not Your Average Poet (on Robert Frost) was a Pinter Review Prize for Drama Silver Medalist in 2005. She lives in Sanford, NC.

Joanna Catherine Scott was born in England, raised in Australia, and took her graduate degree in Philosophy at Duke. Her latest poetry collection Fainting at the Uffizi won the Brockman Campbell Book Award from the North Carolina Poetry Society and the Ekphrasis Prize from Frith Press. Her previous collection Breakfast at the Shangri-La won the Black Zinnias Poetry Book Award from the California Institute of Arts and Letters. Chapbooks Birth Mother and Coming Down from Bataan won the Longleaf Poetry Award and the Acorn-Rukeyser Award, respectively. Scott’s website is: www.joannacatherinescott.com. She lives in Chapel Hill, NC.

Marian Kaplun Shapiro, a psychologist and author of Second Childhood (Norton, 1988), has also had her poems published in over 85 journals and anthologies, and has won nine first prizes and sixteen other prizes. Her book, Players In The Dream, Dreamers In The Play appeared in April, 2007 from Plain View Press. Just recently, her chapbook, Your Third Wish, was accepted for publication by Finishing Line Press. Shapiro lives and practices in Lexington, MA.

Maureen Sherbondy’s poetry has appeared in: Calyx, Feminist Studies, Roanoke Review, 13th Moon, and other journals. Her chapbook, After the Fairy Tale, was published in March by Main Street Rag. Maureen lives in Raleigh, NC. Her website is: www.maureensherbondy.com. 

Nancy Simpson is Resident Writer at John Campbell Folk School. She is the author of Across Water and Night Student and had poems published in Georgia Review and Prairie Schooner. “Night Student” was included in Word and Wisdom, 100 Years of NC Poetry. She edited Lights in the Mountains, Stories, Essays and Poems by Writers Living in and Inspired by the Southern Appalachian Mountains. Nancy currently lives in Hayesville, NC.

Sybil Austin Skakle, born in fishing village of Hatteras on the North Carolina Outer Banks, is a retired hospital pharmacist who writes poetry and prose. Member of N.C. Poetry Society and Chapel Hill Friday Noon Poets, she has published two books of poetry: Searchings and Loves and Lives of Living and Loving; as well as, memoir: Confessions of an Outer Bank Filly. Sybil lives in Chapel Hill, NC.

Warren Slesinger lives in Beaufort, SC, and goes for long walks on the shore. In 2002, he received the South Carolina Poetry Fellowship. He teaches part-time at the University of South Carolina-Beaufort.

Linda M. Smith is a member of the NC Writer’s Network West. Her poems have been published in Lights In The Mountains, Mountain Time and Jonah V. She also writes essays and had one published in Looking Back. Linda has lived in Hayesville, NC for 18 years.

Susan Sonnen resides in Blue Springs, MO, the very town in which she grew up. Ms. Sonnen is a writer of short verse and flash fiction. 

Dorothea Spiegel is a member of Georgia Mountain Writer’s Club and NC Writer’s Network West. She has edited newsletters and had articles published in newspapers in NY, FL and GA. Her poetry appears in Atahita Journal, Methodist Mountain Messenger, Freeing Jonah III and IV, Lights In The Mountains, The Spirit of Christmas, Mountain Time, Home For The Holidays and Looking Back. Dorothea has lived in Hiawassee, Georgia for nineteen years.

Dorothy Anne Spruzen is a student in the MFA in Creative Writing program at Queens University of Charlotte. In another life she was Manager of Publications for a Northern Virginia defense contractor. Her short stories have appeared in several publications, and she is currently working on a novel set in England during World War II. Dorothy lives in McLean, VA.

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.

Cassie Premo Steele is an award-winning poet and writer living in Columbia, SC. Her previous books include Ruin, We Heal From Memory, and Moon Days. “My Peace,” her blog about yoga, writing, and meditative living can be found at www.amsastudios.blogspot.com

Dennis Ward Stiles grew up 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. He served much of his career overseas. He has published widely in distinguished journals and anthologies. Pudding House issued his fifth chapbook,Humdinger, in 2007. He lives in Charleston, South Carolina, with his wife Mary Jane, and is co-owner and vice president of America by Foot, Inc., a national walking tour company.

Janice Sullivan is President of the Writers Group of the Triad in North Carolina. She and her husband spend four weeks each year in Litchfield Beach, SC. Janice has had poems published in Bay Leaves, Icarus International, Pembroke Magazine, Write Minds and several other anthologies. One of her poems will be appearing in Kakalak 2007. Janice currently lives in Greensboro, NC.

Katherine Tracy, a native of southeast LA, currently teaches English at NMSU-A. Her poems have appeared in the anthologies, In the Arms of Words: Poems for Tsunami Relief (2005), In the Arms of Words: Poems for Disaster Relief (2005), The Falling Rain (2000), and Carvings in Stone (1996). Her short story “Les Terroristes, Ils Vivent Parmi Nous” appeared in Le Tintamarre 18.2 Bicentennial Issue, 2002. She is the editor of L’Intrigue WebZine and an editor and book designer for Thunder Rain Publishing and Louisiana Literature Press. Recently, she edited, designed, and published the anthology, In The Eye: a collection of writings (2007). She lives in Alamogordo, NM.

Betty Watson: Growing up in the northeast, Betty has lived up and down the east coast, retiring to WNC. Writing since college (Wheaton - MA) she has taken writing courses at Univ.of GA, The Joiner Center at U.Mass/Boston under novelists Tim O’Brien, Larry Heinemann and poet Bruce Weigl and recently at Blue Ridge Community College under Susan Snowden. Proud mother of four daughters Betty lives in beautiful Flat Rock, NC with her husband Doug. 

T. D. Webb was born and raised in Oklahoma, where his great-grandparents had settled just before Oklahoma became a territory. He was a teacher in the Oklahoma City Public Schools and the University of Oklahoma Lab School. He worked with the Oklahoma County Community Action Program and was a market manager for an insurance company. T. D.’s work has appeared in Looking Back, Crosstimbers, and New Plains Review. T.D. currently lives in Edmond, OK.

Cecily Hamlin Wells lives with her husband in Hendersonville, North Carolina where she studies and works with a group of fellow writers and poets. She recently published a piece of short fiction in the Looking Back Anthology and a poem in Long Story Short.

Earl J. Wilcox as a literary critic published books on Frost, London, and others. He founded the Robert Frost Review, which he edited for a decade. He began writing poetry at age 71 and in the past 3 years has published in KAKALAK, The Centrifugal Eye, Underground Voices, Southern Gothic, Strange Horizons, Word Riot, New Verse News, AETHLON, and elsewhere. Earl currently lives in Rock Hill, SC. 

Glenda Sumner Wilkinsgrew up on a North Carolina tobacco farm, and daydreamed of faraway places. Decades later, she and her husband lived in Luxembourg, and later, 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 his cat, Bustopher. 

Einar Winge-Sorensen spent the first 24 years of his life in Norway. He then worked for 24 years in the international shipping business as a tanker broker in the New York Metropolitan area. The past six years, Einar has lived with his wife Kris and pets in Indian Lake, NY. At the time this book is being published, Einar has returned to shipping in Stamford, CT.

Nancy H. Womack is a retired educator who enjoys gardening, traveling, and entertaining. Her poetry has appeared in Appalachian Heritage, The Thomas Wolfe Review, Teaching English in the Two-Year College, The Mentor and in a previous OMP publication, Home for the Holidays. She lives in Rutherfordton, NC.

Barbara Ledford Wright’s writing has been published in Moonshine and Blind Mules, and was Associate Editor of that anthology, Home for the Holidays, and Looking Back. She has studied creative writing at the local community college. She is a retired school teacher, and now has time to write stories about her family. She has done extensive genealogical research. Barbara’s son graduated from Brevard College and enlisted in the US Army. His scouting skills continued to help him in his two tours of duty in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Barbara currently lives in Shelby, NC.