Tina Barr’s Green Target, winner of the Barrow Street Press Book Prize, was published in fall of 2018. Poems from a fourth book manuscript were recently published in American Journal of Poetry, Asheville Poetry Review, Barrow Street, Louisiana Literature & Tar River Poetry. Her work was nominated for a 9th time for a Pushcart Prize.
Norma Bradley had four poems published in The Avocet; three in the online journal and one in the winter 2019 journal. Two additional poems will appear in the spring online journal. She also had an article published in Ikebana International newsletter, distributed worldwide. She is completing a chapbook.
Peg Bresnahan’s third book of poetry, Hunger to Share, is coming out the end of this month from Press 53, and it’s on their website for preordering now.
Bob Brooks: Here is news of publications of mine, writing as R.R. Brooks:
- My short story “Crystal Bears” was published by the ezine Quantum Muse in April. Set in an ice age time, this fantasy tale explores what it takes to be an effective rebel even with the help of spirit guardians.
- My short story “A Small Murder” has been accepted for inclusion in the anthology Dimensions of Mystery and will be published in 2019 by WritersUnite! International. This mystery short follows a Cherokee sheriff in solving the murder of a young boy.
- My espionage thriller-science fiction novel Clean Copy has been accepted by Black Opal Books for publication late in 2019 or early in 2020. This novel tells a story of Chinese theft of technology in on-the-ground crime ranging from kidnapping to murder.
- My mystery novel The Clown Forest Murders is available as an ebook at a sale price on Amazon and Barnes & Nobel.
- I continue to write and am at work finishing a follow up novel to Justi the Gifted. Both that book and The Clown Forest Murders were worked on in Great Smokies classes.
Jeanne Charters: My first novel, Shanty Gold, (publisher, Rogue Phoenix Press…agent, Loiacono Literary) was shortlisted for the Historical Fiction Gold Medal with Readers Favorite Awards, but it didn’t win. Wish me luck on the second book in the trilogy, Lace Curtain, which will be published in March, 2019.
Because of my career in television and advertising, I wrote a book several years ago about a TV female news director in Philadelphia and the pressure on her to slant her news politically and corporately. I never got an agent for that book; but because of the recent furor about "fake news," decided to send it off to Rogue Phoenix Press this month. They’re going to publish it in August or September, 2019. Its title will be either Yellow or The Wrong Woman.
Caralyn Davis lists her publishing news:
- “The Woman Candidate”: Flash fiction, published at Writers Resist (2017) and in Writers Resist: The Anthology (2018).
- “Who Owns a Woman’s Shoulders?”: Personal essay, published at The Bitter Southerner (2018).
- “A Taste for It”: Speculative flash fiction, published at the Molotov Cocktail (2018).
- “Color Blind”: Short story, originally published at Eclectica Magazine (2015) and in Eclectica Magazine Speculative V1: Celebrating 20 Years Online (2016), performed by performance art group Word Cabaret in Red Hook, Brooklyn (2018).
Stephany Newberry-Davis: I was published in The Great Smokies Review Fall 2018 issue. A piece I submitted to the Rose Post Creative Nonfiction Competition was a top 12 finalist.
Nancy Dillingham’s newest book, Like Headlines: New and Selected Poems (introduction “Headlines, Heartlines” by Fred Chappell), has been published by Red Dirt Press. Three of her poems from the collection also appeared in Red Dirt Forum, Vol. 2. Her poem “Late Autumn: A Valediction” (also from the collection) appeared in Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel: Contemporary Appalachian Writing, Vol. 21.
Robin Russell Gaiser’s second memoir Open for Lunch (Pisgah: 2018) was launched to a standing-room-only crowd at a Malaprop's reading in November. Her short story, “I’ll Fly Away,” is a finalist in the Grateful Steps contest (she has had three stories become finalists in this contest) and is now published in the anthology, Bits of Sugar and Other Stories (Grateful Steps: 2019).
Anne Waters Green: My poem “Cleaning the Allen Family Plot” was the third place poetry winner in the Kakalak magazine's 2018 contest. They also published “Druthers.” My poem “The Question of Genesis” was included in the issue no. 30, summer 2018, of The Rose in the World. “Nameless” was published on-line in Untold Volumes Poetry on the website of Christian Feminists Today.
David Greenson won first prize in the 2018 Owl Canyon Press Hackathon contest with his short story “The Biggest Salmon Barbecue in the Galaxy.” There were over 900 submissions for the contest, and David’s winning story, along with the second and third prize winners and twenty-four finalists, was published in an anthology last fall, titled No Bars and a Dead Battery.
Jeanne Howe has been awarded a poetry residency for late March and early April at The Cill Rialaig Project, a reconstructed small pre-famine village on the Atlantic coastline of County Kerry, Ireland.
Ric Hunter: I finished a novel prior to 9-11, but then decided to go into Civil Service to help with the war on terror. I ultimately ran two Air Force flight simulator programs and retired after eight years. The novel, Firehammer, was traditionally published shortly thereafter by Red Engine Press. They also nominated it for a Pulitzer Prize, after it was chosen first place by Author’s Zone Awards and was a silver medal winner from the Military Writer’s Society of America. The book is published in two cover versions, trade paperback and hardback. The hardback includes a forward by Dwight Zimmerman, a New York Times best selling author and commemorates the 40th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War.
Vicki Lane was instrumental in renewing my love of creative writing, helping to get Firehammer and other magazine and newspaper articles published. A secondary effect of Vicki’s teaching was that my wife, Jan Hunter, has since written and had published a companion novel to mine. Taming the Fire Within’s target audience is the young adult reader, and its setting is a farm in the mountains of western North Carolina. Jan and I give presentations about the books and the stories behind the novels to varied audiences such as civic and veterans groups as well as many others. We live in the mountains around Burnsville, N.C. Our novels are available on Amazon.
Gene Hyde
My ekphrastic poem/photo “Brimful of Grace” was published in the fall 2018 issue of the literary journal Valley Voices.
Karen Luke Jackson’s poem “Deconstructing Goldilocks” appeared in One: An Online Poetry Journal and her poem “Glenmary Sister” in Christian Feminism Today. “Porch Rhapsody” was accepted as part of the Poetry in Plain Sight programs and will be featured on posters in public spaces in Winston-Salem and New Bern in July 2019.
Vicki Lane is delighted to announce that her (as yet untitled) novel about the Shelton Laurel Massacre in Civil War era Madison County, N.C., will be published in 2020 by Regal House.
Constance Lombardo’s first picture book, Everybody Says Meow (Harper Collins Children’s Books), which she wrote and illustrated, is being published in November 2019.
William C. Mills is pleased to announce the publication of his new memoir, Losing My Religion: A Memoir of Faith and Finding (Eugene, OR: Resource Books, 2019) 170 pages.
Deborah Moeller: I took a wonderful course with Joy Neaves several years ago. In 2018, I won first place in a national ghost story competition called “The Apparitionist.” Thanks to Joy and Frankie Bolt. I’m still writing and just entered several poetry contests through the NC Poetry Society and the NC Poet Laureate’s competition.
Kathy Nelson lists recent poetry acceptances:
“Seamstress” will appear in Southern Poetry Review later this year.
“Eighty-Seventh Birthday” will appear in the Broad River Review later this year.
“How to Unknot a Strait Jacket” and “Eclipse” will appear in Tar River Poetry later this year or early next year.
Harli Palme had a short story published in Jabberwock Review in fall 2018.
Amy Currie Parker: One of my poems, "The Sixty-Acre Hole In Her Heart," was included in Kakalak 2018 by Main Street Rag.
Ellen J. Perry is happy to share her recent and forthcoming publications: “Joni and Jesus,” Mountains Piled upon Mountains: Appalachian Nature Writing in the Anthropocene; “Good Fortune,” Momaya Short Story Review 2018; “Wild Blackberry,” Chaleur Magazine; “Wrong Turn,” The Esthetic Apostle; “Medusa,” S/tick Journal. “Wild Blackberry” and “Wrong Turn” were written during Beth Keefauver’s class, and “Medusa” was written during Annette Clapsaddle’s class.
Nancy Poling won the 2018 Alex Albright Creative Nonfiction Prize for “Leander’s Lies,” which will appear in the 2019 publication of the North Carolina Literary Review. In 2017, the book I was working on while in Sebastian Matthews' Great Smokies class, Before It Was Legal: a black-white marriage (1945-1987), was published.
Susan Posey: Thanks to all the Great Smokies gang for helping me with my historical fiction book called A Home On Wilder Shores, especially Margie Klein and Tommy Hays. Most thanks go to my wonderful writing group (also found in a Great Smokies class), Grove Writers’ Group. This is forthcoming from Page Publishing.
Patricia L. Poteat: My creative nonfiction piece, “The Children’s Hour: A Memoir,” was a finalist in the North Carolina Literary Reviews’s Alex Albright Non-Fiction Prize.
Mike Ross: An ekphrastic poem of mine entitled “The Accompanist” appeared in February 2019 in the Ekphrastic Review, an online journal. Ekphrastic poems are poems inspired by paintings or sculpture. “The Accompanist” is based on Edgar Degas’ Ballet Rehearsal, 1873. Degas painted numerous canvases depicting ballet and ballerinas, and this is one of the most famous, on display at Harvard’s Fogg Museum.
David Schulman: The March issue of Laurel Magazine of Highlands and Cashiers, North Carolina featured me and my previous novel, The Past Is Never Dead (about a 1936 murder at the Battery Park Hotel), and my continuing work on The Late Gatsby, featuring F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald at Highland Hospital, past and present.
Cynthia Yancey: Two of my works have recently been accepted for publication. The first is entitled "Outstaring Darkness." It was published February 14, in Entropy magazine. The second piece, "A Doctor Finds her Way," will appear in the spring issue of Streetlight, an online literary journal.
I attended Great Smokies Writing Program classes with Chris Hale twice and with Brian Knopp once, both of whom were incredibly encouraging and helpful. I was accepted into the masters writing program at Lenoir-Rhyne University in January, 2017.
For each spring issue, Tommy Hays, Executive Director of the Great Smokies Writing Program, asks writers in our community to send their news of awards, presentations, and publications. For news about Tommy’s own publications, interviews, and appearances, visit his website (tommyhays.com).