Appalachia Bare would like to take this opportunity to thank our readers, subscribers, and followers. We’re so grateful for your interest and support. We strive to offer you the best content unique to and from Appalachia. We have exciting plans for future Appalachian topics and more submissions to come from our most talented contributors. We can’t wait to unveil these features and we look forward to sharing in this venture with you.
We’d also like to offer a special thank you to our contributors – writers, poets, photographers, and interviewees – for their time, effort, and outstanding submissions. A big thank you to William Isom and all the crew at Black in Appalachia for advice, support, and cooperative ideas. Check out their new podcast. Thank you to Union Ave Books for your dedication to promoting books, reading, and authors through such an irreplaceable local business.
We have compiled a list of our contributors below. Just click on their names and you’ll find a link to their writings on Appalachia Bare. Added links for some contributors will take you to their interests or promotions as well.
Erik Bathe is from Newton, North Carolina and teaches 8th grade math at Heritage Middle School in Valdese, NC. His hobbies include hiking, fishing and spending time outside.
George Brosi graduated from Oak Ridge High School in 1960, Carleton College in 1965, and earned an M.A. Ed. from Western Carolina University in 1991. He is an editor and writer and has received awards for promoting Appalachian Literature. He founded Appalachian Mountain Books (ApMtBooks.com) in 1982, which specializes exclusively in books about the Appalachian South that serves academic libraries, and brings a display of books to various regional conferences and festivals. In the 1990s he taught students in humble circumstances and at Kentucky’s “flagship” university. In his younger days, George worked full time for Civil Rights, peace, economic justice, and environmental organizations. Subsequently, he has continued to do volunteer work for social issues. Read Ed Francisco’s interview with Mr. Brosi for his story and a more detailed bio.
Visit Ivy Love brown’s website where you’ll find she is “native to Florida, is an emerging author in East Tennessee, home of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Greatly influenced by her dual time spent around the ocean and the mountains she was inspired to write.” Her stories are captivating and she weaves endings that haunt the mind well after reading them. Visit her website and follow her on Facebook.
Jim Clark, a retired Air Force nurse living with his wife and daughter in Asheville, North Carolina, was raised in Chattanooga, Tennessee. When he’s not holding down the home front, Jim is likely to be running or biking the surrounding trails and back roads. He enjoys capturing bytes of flora and fauna with a camera sensor and occasionally sentences a few bits to prose or poem.
Trent Eades is a journalist, photographer, and educator based in Knoxville, Tennessee. His interests include Greek Philosophy, Medieval and Renaissance Literature, and Science Fiction. He’s never enjoyed long walks in the rain but is adept at short sprints through heavy downpours. When he’s not teaching writing and literature to students, who may or may not care about writing and literature, he can be found prowling the local environs looking for stories to photograph or chronicle.
Holly Eaton has lived in the mountains of West Virginia for over a decade, where she has a small homestead with geese, tomatoes and too many cats. She’s a new writer with a wonderful talent for storytelling who has dubbed her story, “The Dancing Fiddle” as being in the genre, “Appalachian Fairy Tale.”
Paul Hester is a recent high school graduate who plans to pursue a business major at Pellissippi State Community College. He loves camping and hiking in the outdoors and enjoys hanging out with friends.
Linda Hinkle, born and raised in the West Virginia coal country, is a solitary practicing Witch/Healer who currently resides in Ooltewah, Tennessee with her loving husband and two sons. Linda is a Licensed Master Social Worker, currently working with her fellow sister and brother Veterans to provide resources and assistance at her current place of employment. Linda is a disabled Army Veteran and former Army Combat Medic, she went from healing the body to additionally healing the mind. She plans to live out a life of service for the rest of her days.
David Madden lives in Black Mountain, North Carolina and is a Robert Penn Warren Professor Emeritus at Louisiana State University. He is an extraordinarily talented person – a prolific writer in all fields – born and shaped in the rolling hills and deep valleys of Knoxville, Tennessee. From novels to short stories, poetry, essays, playwriting, libretti, scholarly works, literary criticism, and edited texts, his literary endowments encompass a full scope of erudition. Find information about his bibliography, awards, and prizes here (broken link).
Ian is a former staff member for Imaginary Gardens at Pellissippi State Community College and is working towards a degree in Psychology at the University of Tennessee. Having spent most of his life in Indiana, he loves discovering new places around the Appalachian region. He loves reading books about religions and other cultures, as well as watching whatever is on Netflix’s trending tab.
Flossie McNabb has been a bookstore owner for 15 yeas and is currently the owner of Union Ave Books, an independent bookstore located in downtown Knoxville, TN. Union Ave Books has been open since 2011, and has a wide array of books, greeting cards, games, and many other items. Her establishment also supports works by local artists and has hosted a long list of local and regional authors.
Benny Franklin Shown, Sr. (1947 – 2014) was born in a little home on Dog Creek in Jacksboro, Tennessee. He was a Vietnam Veteran from 1967-1968 who served honorably with Second Platoon in B Battery of the 29th Artillery. He served with the First Air Cavalry Division, various infantry units, and, in some cases, with Special Forces. He spent the bulk of his life further serving his community and country — as a Campbell County Tennessee Sheriff’s Deputy and, subsequently, a Security Inspector for Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, TN. He was a master craftsman, wood worker, and artist. He kept a journal of his Vietnam experiences, which can be read in excerpts on Appalachia Bare.
Thank you from the Appalachia Bare Staff!
Delonda Anderson, Chief Editor
Edward Francisco, Associate Editor, edwardfrancisco.com
Grant Mincy, Science & Environmental Scholar, Appalachian Son
Tom Anderson, Admin Virtuoso
Thank you for all of your hard work and for providing a forum for such a diverse group of contributors.