NOW AVAILABLE FOR YOUR AMAZON KINDLE $2.99

NOW AVAILABLE FOR YOUR BARNES & NOBLE KOOK $2.99

About the book

Joy Acey recently moved to Tucson, AZ. Her work has appeared in several anthologies including Poets for Peace, Friday Noon Poets and other OMP publications. She has sold poems to Highlights for Children and has won many awards from the NC Poetry Society and the Poetry Council. She has two collections of poems Monsters, Trolls, and Other Odd Folks and Helping Hands, Helping Hearts.

Matthew G. Adams’ poetry has appeared in Mountain Time, Home for the Holidays, Looking Back; Mountain High, You Gotta Love ‘em, and Just Between Us. Matthew lives in Midway Park, NC.

SANDRA ERVIN ADAMS’ poetry appeared in all previous Old Mountain Press anthologies. She is listed in A Directory of American Poets and Writers. Sandra lives in Midway Park, NC, and through all her difficult trials in life, she considers writing to be her saving grace

Katherine Russell Barnes lives in Wilson, NC. She is a retired nurse, a wife, a mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother. She studied writing at Barton College and at Wilson Technical Community College and has written poetry for three decades. Her poems have been published in Crucible, Pembroke Magazine, Dragonfly and many other magazines and anthologies. She has held offices in the NC Poetry Society and The Poetry Council of NC.

Fred Bassett’s poems have been widely published in journals and anthologies. A collection of his poems, The Old Stoic Faces the Mirror, was recently published by Salt Marsh Cottages Books. His first novel, South Wind Rising, will be published by ATTM Press this fall. He lives with his wife Peg in Greenwood, South Carolina, near their grandchildren.

Joann Bishop recently had another poem by Barton Literary Student Journal title “Mary’s Grandmother”. Bentonville Battlefield was one of her historic travel excursion one day after dropping a friend off at the airport. She decided she would go see this because in her lifetime she had been to Manassess Battlefield and Gettysburg Battlefield in the 60s and 70s. Her parents would take her and her brother to many historic places when her father was stationed at different military bases as she was growing up. Later in her adult life she visited Vicksburg Battlefield in the 70s. She has written poems about Manasses, Gettysburg, and Vicksburg Battlefields. She hopes to see Moores Creek Battlefied in the future so she can write about it. 
 

Ervene Boyd’s poetry has appeared in previous OMP Anthologies; she lives in her hometown of Raleigh, NC but loves to travel and finds inspiration in unique experiences. As a healing minister,Reiki teacher and artist,Ervene observes many ways heart thoughts are shared but considers words a powerful way to express the similarities between all our differences. The included poem was inspired after a trip to Africa. 

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 ten 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 his 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 are currently living inRaeford, NC. 

Ethelena Jackson Brown was born in Baconton, GA, on January 8, 1915,and has lived in Macon, GA, since her graduation from college in 1937. For twenty years, she taught highschool English and an assortment of other subjects. Today the joy of her life is spending time with six grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. Excerpts from her recently published autobiography, Growing up Southern In Baconton, Georgia. made up her contribution to this anthology.

Stuart Burroughs has been involved since childhood in visual art, poetry, and music. She has taught English and art, and her art hangs in many places. A collection of her poems,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, every week at several locations.

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

Jim Clark is the Elizabeth H. Jordan Chair of Southern Literature and Chair of the Department of English and Modern Language at Barton College, in Wilson, NC. He lives in the country with his two dogs. His current project is The Service of Song, a CD featuring his musical settings of the poems of Byron Herbert Reece.

Paula J Clarke, a native of the United Kingdom, and is currently working at Birmingham International Airport. Her love for travel to places she has been, and places she has yet to go influence her poetry greatly. Her passion for all things in life, good and bad, has also inspired her writing. Paula has three sons, which bring her joy every day.

Ed Cockrell of Chapel Hill, NC, writes poetry once-in-awhile after he takes his wife morning coffee, feeds the cat, two dogs, and goldfish; fixes himself bacon and eggs for breakfast, walks the two dogs, reads the morning newspaper, and checks if any mowing or pruning is needed for the yard.

Vicki Collins’ work has appeared in Kakalak: Anthology of Carolina Poets, Poetry of the Golden Generation, and The Teacher’s Voice. She is a member of The Authors Club of Augusta and The Augusta Poetry Group. Vicki lives in Graniteville, SC, and is the ESOL instructor in the English Department at the University of South Carolina-Aiken.

Sonja Contois has written four novels, is an award-winning author with short stories in Christmas Presence, Exit 109, Mountain High, The Outer Side of Life, They That Go Down to the Sea, and Just Between Us. 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 Western North Carolina.

Russell Crews has lived in Orangeburg, South Carolina for the past 20 years. He is originally from Dothan, Alabama. He enjoys tennis, basketball, bowling, fishing, card games, and of course writing poetry. He is the CEO of the website www.recruitmee.comMAMC 1930-2005

Karen Dixon-Bbrugh retired from the Army as a Lt. Colonel. She lives in Leesburg, Virginia, and works as a Senior Cyber Security Engineer for VeriSign in support of the National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee, Cyber Security Collaboration Project. A former student of Dr. Lynn Veach Sadler, she enjoys golf, skiing, traveling, and long-distance bike riding. 

Debra Elramey writes and teaches in Wilson, NC. Her work has appeared in numerous publications, including Sojourners, Windhover, and Crucible. She has written and recorded a collection of songs, Glowing in the Dark; completed a novel, Broken Angels; and is currently working on a memoir, School of Unschooling. Her story, “The Gentle Art of Birthing at Home” is forthcoming in Natural Life magazine. She will never outgrow riding the children’s train at the Rec.

Catherine E. Entrocaso is often accused of thinking in italics. She currently resides in Fayetteville, NC where she is an English teacher, a frustrated poet, and a revolution starter in her spare time. She aspires towards publication of her own chapbook one day, however she is currently broke due to contest fees. She spends her time eating Ramen Noodles with her loving and supportive husband and two children. 

Terri Kirby Erickson is the award-winning author of two books of poetry, Thread Count (2006) and Telling Tales of Dusk (2009). Her work has appeared in numerous literary journals, anthologies and other publications, including The Christian Science Monitor, Eclectica and JAMA. You can find out more about her poetry at: www.terrikirbyerickson.wordpress.com or www.press53.com. Terri was born in Winston-Salem, NC, but has lived in Lewisville, NC, for many years.

Dena M. Ferrari is Vice-President of the Writers’ Ink Guild in Fayetteville, NC. Her poetry has appeared in the Phoenix, Fields of Earth and in Charles Weyant’s book, An Odyssey in Broken Rhythms and Ragged Lines. She and her husband, Peter, share a wonderful life of love and laughter in Vass, NC. She also has poems in OMP Anthologies. She loves being a part of Nature and remains Spiritual in all her endeavors. Brightest Blessings.

Ann Fogelman, a writer of memoirs in prose and poetry, was born in Reading, Pa. She is a member of Bay Area Writers League, Gulf Coast Poets, Poetry Society of Texas, The Arts Alliance Center in ClearLake and OLLI in Galveston. Her work has appeared in Pets Across America, The Noble Generation, That Thing You Do, Boundless 2010, and Just Between Us. Ann and Mitzie, her little pomeranian, live 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, Arizona in the 1870s. All six of his novels can be found at the www.pentaclespress.com website. The Anasazi Quest novels can also be purchased through Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.

BJ Gillum is 72 years old, married to Saundra for 49 years and lives in Rockwood, TN where he retired in 1994. They have three sons and two grandchildren. BJ has written and self-published six novels, one travelogue and co-founded Roane Writer’s Group since retiring. He contributed a poem to the Just between Us anthology

Tom Gluzinski has written poetry since he was a child and continues to write and publish today. His work covers many areas of interest and he uses several forms in his writing. This is his eighth effort for an Old Mountain anthology. Tom lives in Lindenhurst, IL.

Marian Gowan’sNotes from the Trunk was published in 2009 by Old Mountain Press. Her work has appeared in several anthologies, most recently in Just Between Us, Old Mountain Press. She and her husband moved to Hendersonville, NC from upstate NY in 2001.

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

MaXine Carey Harker, taught Writing for Publication for many years at Pitt Community College and Craven Community College and now at the Recreation Center in New Bern, NC. She has been published in national, state, and local newspapers and magazines and in NCPS and Old Mountain anthologies. Her personal writing preference is nonfiction and poetry. MaXine is a longstanding member of the: NC Poetry Society and NC Writers Network and the NC Haiku Society. She has lived in Grifton, NC for54 years.

Joseph Haymore is a self-taught poet. A former president of the Writers’ Ink Guild, he first started writing poetry 12 years ago and continues to produce five to ten poems each month. His love of poetry and the literary arts stems from an early life surrounded by books. He encourages all parents to fill their homes with books and to make reading a part of their childrens’ lives.

Elizabeth Hebron’s work has been published in several previous OMP anthologies and various other places. She is honored to share the joy of writing, as well as the lives and friendship of five very special women who have been together for 22 years as a writing group. She lives in Westland, Michigan, with her husband, youngest daughter, and two dogs.

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 work has appeared in various periodicals and anthologies, and he has published two chapbooks, A Man and A Horse and Coffee, Songs, and Snakes: Sonnets for Grandma.

Jerry Judge lives in Cincinnati with his wife Michele, and three imperial cats and one spunky terrier. 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 medieval literature and writing and does too much paperwork at Winthrop University. Recent work has appeared in the collections Just Between Us (Old Mountain Press) and A Cadence of Hooves (Yarroway Mountain Press). She is completing a chapbook called Nine Days’ Wonder, and it will be one indeed if she gets it done this year. She and her cats live in comfortable chaos and in Rock Hill, SC.

Patsy Kennedy Lain’s desire to write blossomed as a young woman, dwindled with the survival of life. Older now, her dream and passion to write grows, runs rampant like water rushing downhill, and blooms daily. Patsy lives in Hubert, NC.

Blanche L. Ledford lives in Hayesville, NC. Her work has appeared in Just Between Us, They That Go Down to the Sea, Lights in the Mountains, and upcoming in the anthologies, Echoes Across the Blue Ridge, and From the Porch Swing-Memories of our Grandparents. She received first place in the Cherokee County Senior Games Silver Arts contest.

Brenda Kay Ledford lives in Hayesville, NC. She belongs to NC Writers’ Network and NC Poetry Society. Her work has appeared in Just Between Us, They That Go Down to the Sea, Asheville Poetry Review, Our State, and upcoming in The Broad River Review, and Wild Goose Poetry Review. She received the Paul Green for two poetry books printed by Finishing Line Press. Visit her website at: www.brendakayledford.com.

Mike Lythgoe lived in England with his wife, Louise, and sons Michael and Christopher for four years. He rode the Metropolitan Line on the Underground to The Ministry of Defence at Horseguards, as an Air Force Liaison Officer. The family hiked in Cornwall and Scotland. “Lythgoe” comes from Linlithgow on the Firth of Forth, birthplace of Mary Queen of Scots. He lives now in Aiken, SC. His poetry collection, HOLY WEEK, is on Amazon.com

Al Manning is a retired Navy officer, currently living in Pittsboro, Al is on the Board of Trustees for the North Carolina Writers’ Network, and is the NCWN representative for Chatham County. A Pushcart nominee, his short stories, poems and essays appeared in Lights in the Mountains, Mountain High, Southern Mist , and The Outer Side of Life. His latest book is Curmudgeon’s Book of Nursery Rhymes, available at independent bookstores or from the author.

David Treadway Manning lives with his wife Doris in Cary, NC and has work in various journals, seven chapbooks, and the full-length collection, The Flower Sermon (Main Street Rag, 2007). His latest chapbook, Continents of Light, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2010.

Halle Meyer lives and writes in Raleigh. She is the mother of three...four if you count the troll.

Paul C. Mitchell is a retired United Methodist minister. His poetry has been published in Crucible, Bay Leaves, other magazines and anthologies. He recently moved to Bailey, NC and plans to spend considerable time writing. 

Rebecca J. Mitchell has served on the boards of The NC Poetry Society and the Poetry Council of NC. Her poems have been published in Crucible, Tar River, Bay Leaves and other magazines and several anthologies, including Line Drives: 100 Baseball Poems. She recently moved back home to Bailey, NC. 

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.

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. Her writing and photos can be found at:

www.memomuse.wordpress.com

and 

www.meganoteri.wordpress.com. 

She misses her native land, Wyoming, but is currently enjoying the MA in English program at ECU.

Martha O’Quinn, a native of NC, has lived in four other southern states. Her creative non-fiction and poetry reflect her southern heritage. Her work has appeared in many previous OMP anthologies. A Common Thread recently won honorable mention in an annual short, short story contest sponsored by wnc-woman. Her work also appeared in Christmas Presence and Clothes Lines, edited by Celia Miles and Nancy Dillingham. Martha and her husband live in Hendersonville, NC.

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

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 Just Between Us, They That Go Down to the Sea, You Gotta Love ‘em, and Exit 109.

Phil Richardson lives in Athens, Ohio. His stories, “The Joker is Wild” and “Garden Ornamentals” were nominated for the Pushcart Prize in Fiction. Publications: Wild Violet, The Storyteller, Cafe Irreal, Digitalis Obscura, Danse Macabre, Short Story Library, Word Catalyst, The Legendary, The Apparatus, and The Starving Writer. Anthologies: Love After 70, The Monsters Next Door, Exit 109, Outer Side of Life, Just Between Us, Writing On Walls, Don’t Tread On Me, Tales of Ichor.

Joyce Richardson is the author of two chapbooks of poetry by Pudding House, The Reader and Sailing Without A Sail. She has published one novel, On Sunday Creek, and her mystery novel, Nude Descending A Staircase, will appear in the spring. She is a past fellowship recipient in fiction from The Ohio Arts Council, and her artist residencies have included The Mary Anderson Center, Cummington Community for the Arts, and Ragdale.

Edwina Rooker lives on the Neuse River in Bridgeton, NC. She has won recognition for poetry and nonfiction in five states. Her newspaper column Observations appears in the Warren Record.

Dr. Lynn Veach Sadler, a former college president, has published widely in academics and creative writing. Editor, poet, fiction/creative nonfiction writer, and playwright, she has published a novella, short-story collection, and six chapbooks and has a chapbook, full-length poetry collection, and novel forthcoming. Named 2007 Writer of the Year by California’s elizaPress, she won Wayne State’s 2008 Pearson Award for a play on Iraq. She lives in Sanford, NC.

Joanna Catherine Scott 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.

Marian Kaplun Shapiro practices as a psychologist and poet in Lexington, Massachusetts. She is the author of a professional book, Second Childhood (Norton, 1988), a poetry book, Players In The Dream, Dreamers In The Play (Plain View Press, 2007) and two chapbooks: Your Third Wish, (Finishing Line, 2007); and The End Of The World, Announced On Wednesday (Pudding House, 2007). Winner of the Elizabeth Bolton award in 2009, she was named Senior Poet Laureate of Massachusetts in 2006, in 2008, and again in 2010.

Sybil A. Skakle, retired pharmacist, poet, is a member of Friday Noon Poets and has submitted poems to many anthologies and has published two books of poetry: Searchings and Loves and Lives of Living and Loving, as well as two memoirs: Confessions of an Outer Banks Filly and Valley of the Shadow. She resides in Chapel Hill. 

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. It was July 2008 that this passion took flight. Since that time she finds peace and inspiration in things she had carelessly overlooked for over forty years.

Dorothy Anne Spruzen grew up near London, England, earned an MFA in Creative Writing from Queens University of Charlotte, and teaches writing in Northern Virginia when she’s not seeking her own muse. In another life she was Manager of Publications for a defense contractor. Her short stories and poems have appeared in many publications, and she is currently seeking representation for her novel, The Blitz Business, which is set in WWII England. 

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’sFamily Matters:Homage to July, the Slave Girl won the 2008 Bellday Poetry Prize, Allen Grossman, judge.

James Wallis currently lives in Melbourne Australia where he would have some people believe he is an astronaut.

Evelyne Weeks is a writer of both poetry and prose. Most recently her work has been published in The Hollins Critic, Appalachian Heritage, and Out of the Rough: Women’s Poems of Survival and Celebration. Today she lives in Rock Hill, South Carolina, where she has taught English at Winthrop University since 1989.

Charles “Hawk” Weyant lives 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.

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. 

Susan P. Wilburn was born in Sharon, Pennsylvania and grew up in Hickory Township, also in Pennsylvania. Her favorite themes are God and the beauty of His creation. She is so far unpublished Susan received a BS Biology Degree from Radford University in 1977. She now resides in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. 

Charlotte Wolf returned to university in her fifties to obtain a Master’s Degree and rediscovered the joys of writing. Since retiringand moving to Hendersonville, North Carolina in 1995 her writing has appeared as both prose and poetry in the anthologies: Clothes Lines, Just Between Us, Echoes Across the Blue Ridge, Jubilate! A Celebration of Poetry; the magazine, Western North Carolina Woman, and two editions of The Great Smokies Review.

JANE WOOD is a nature writer for the Wilson Times. Her poetry has appeared in publications including former poet laureates Sam Ragan's column in The Pilot and on the web page of Kathryn S. Byer. Her short stories appeared in The Christian Reader, Reminisce magazine and Birds & Blooms magazine. She lives in rural Wilson, N.C. 

Barbara Ledford Wright has been published in several Old Mountain Press Anthologies including Just Between Us. She’s been published in Muscadine Lines, Express Yourself, Fireflies and June Bugs, Yesterdays Magazette, Christmas Presence, Clothes Lines, Fresh! Printed Literary Magazine and Muse. She presently resides in Shelby, NC.

C. Pleasants York’s love of travel began when she read the postcards and love letters her father sent to her mother from Switzerland, Italy, and Belgium. A teacher of World Literature and Creative Writing from Sanford, NC, York and her family have visited over 20 countries by taking student groups on tours. Their latest trips were to London and, later in the summer, to Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, and Hawaii. 

Joseph Youngblood lives with his family in Fayetteville, NC. His works have appeared in several previous OMP Anthologies.

I would have written a shorter letter but didn't have time.

(Blaise Pascal)
1642 France