Contributors to this issue

Contributors to this issue Warren J. Carson grew up in the Western North Carolina Mountains. He teaches English at USC-Spartanburg and serves as an Advisory Editor of the College Language Association Journal. Fred Chappell is one of the most highly acclaimed contemporary Appalachian writers. The Poet Laureate of North Carolina since 1997, Chappell is a recipient of the prestigious Bollingen Prize in Poetry given by the Yale University Library and of the award for the best foreign novel by the Académie Française. A native of Canton, North Carolina, Chappell has taught at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro since 1964. Scott R. Christianson lives, works, and goes fly-fishing in Southwest Virginia. He teaches English at Radford University and has been published in The Yeats Eliot Review, The Dictionary of Literary Biography, The Writing Instructor and other publications. Casey Clabough teaches at Lynchburg College in Virginia. He is the author of Elements: The Novels ofJames Dickey and is currently working on a book on Fred Chappell's fiction. Julie Dunlop did not grow up in Kentucky as reported in the Winter 2002 Appalachian Heritage, but rather in Vienna, Virginia, with close ties to her mother's kin in the Wise County town of Appalachia, Virginia. She received her Masters in English at the University of New Mexico recently and will be teaching English in an Albuquerque high school this fall. Hannah Ekberg works for the Japanese Mission to the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. Growing up, she divided her time between Normal, Illinois, and her mother's native West Virginia. Before moving to Switzerland she lived in Scotland and France. Her poem, "April in Edinburgh," was published in an anthology there. She is interested in the poetry of mountain people in Scotland, Switzerland and Appalachia. Sidney Saylor Farr was editor of Appalachian Heritage from the Winter of 1985 through the Summer of 1999. The author of seven books, three from university presses, she grew up on Stoney Fork in Bell County, Kentucky, and is retired from Berea College. She lives in Berea, Kentucky. Cathryn Hankla grew up in Richlands and Dublin, Virginia, and now teaches creative writing at Hollins College near her home in Roanoke. She is the author of ten books of fiction and poetry. The poem first published in this issue, "Only Thyme," will appear in her collection, Last Exposures, forthcoming from LSU Press in 2004. 98 Judith Victoria Hensley teaches science at the Wallins School in Harlan County, Kentucky. She and her students are best known for saving Black Mountain, Kentucky's highest peak, from strip mining a few years ago. Jane Hicks is an elementary school teacher living in her native Upper East Tennessee. She is an avid quilter as well as an award-winning poet. Currently she is working on a novel telling the stories of characters who first appeared in her poems. Elizabeth Howard is a retired high school English teacher who grew up in Wilson County, Tennessee. Her writing has appeared in numerous publications, and she is the author of a book of poetry entitled Anemones. She lives in Crossville, Tennessee. Walter Lane, ever since he was labeled an "eccentric writer" by a well-known regional publication, has declined to give out personal information, a decision that only reaffirms his eccentricity! He receives his mail at the Raccoon, Kentucky, Post Office. Rita Sims Quillen teaches English at Mountain Empire Community College in Big Stone Gap, Virginia. A native of Hiltons, Virginia, she has published a book of Appalachian literary criticism and two poetry collections. Gordon Simmons has worked for several different bookstores in West Virginia and has earned a reputation as one of the foremost scholars of that state's literary heritage. He is now employed by the West Virginia Commission on the Arts and also teaches Philosophy part-time for Marshall University and Ashland Community College. He is active in AFSCME and the West Virginia Labor History Association. R. T. Smith's fiction has appeared in Southern Review, Missouri Review, and other periodicals. His most recent poetry collection is Brightwood. He received his M.A. in English from Appalachian State University and now serves Washington and Lee University...