Larry D. Thacker, Featured Photographer

"All of my artistic attempts," writes Larry Thacker, "be they painting, writing, poetry, photography, are related in that one leads to another—a photo inspires poetry which inspires a painting, for example. Ultimately, I'm in search of self. That's why the title of my poetry collection, Voice Hunting, is so appropriate." Thacker is also an actor who has had roles in three musicals and a public speaker at a variety of occasions, notably on the region's Civil War heritage. His paintings have been featured at half-a-dozen one-man shows, and his photographs have won prizes at several exhibitions.

A native of Middlesborough, Kentucky, Thacker remains a resident there. He served as President of the Middlesborough Rotary Club, was a columnist for the Middlesborough Daily News for eight years, and was elected to the Middlesborough City Council to serve from 2006 to 2008. Thacker has lived in Middlesborough almost all his life, and received both his bachelors and masters degrees from nearby Lincoln Memorial University, just across the Tennessee state line, where he has worked for the last dozen years, currently as Director of Student Success and Career Services. He served in the U.S. Army in Korea where he interrogated North Korean defectors in the Korean language!

In 2007, Overmountain Press published Larry Thacker's first book, Mountain Mysteries: The Mythic Traditions of Appalachia, and a second volume of Mountain Mysteries, Follow the Crow, is forthcoming. The paranormal is another keen interest for Thacker who claims the house he lives in at Middlesborough is haunted and is a contributing author in Weird Encounters: True Tales of Haunted Places. "Looking for Ghosts, Finding Mountain Top Removal" was the title of an essay he published in 2009 in the Lincoln Memorial University literary magazine, The Emancipator. This is only one of several presentations that Thacker has made on this topic that currently engages his sense of civil responsibility.