CHRIS ARVIDSON
With deep arts roots in Ashe County, Chris Arvidson writes and paints in Charlotte, North Carolina, while teaching at UNC Charlotte. She is co-editor of Mountain Memoirs: An Ashe County Anthology; Reflections on the New River: New Essays, Poems and Personal Stories; and The Love of Baseball: Essays by Lifelong Fans. Her poetry chapbook, The House Inside My Head, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2022. She serves on the board of Charlotte Lit and on the Exhibits Committee at the Charlotte Art League. ChrisArvidson.com
GEORGANN EUBANKS
Georgann Eubanks is a Festival favorite writer, documentary maker, and consultant. Her books include the three-volume North Carolina Literary Trails series commissioned by the North Carolina Arts Council, and The Month of Their Ripening: North Carolina Heritage Foods Through the Year. In 2021, Saving the Wild South: The Fight for Native Plants on the Brink of Extinction was published. She serves as literary executor and director of the Paul Green Foundation, dedicated to preserving the legacy of North Carolina’s Pulitzer-Prize-winning playwright and human rights advocate, Paul Eliot Green. GeorgannEubanks.net
DONNA EVERHART
Donna Everhart is the USA Today bestselling author of Southern fiction with authenticity and grit, including the Indie Next List selection, The Education of Dixie Dupree, as well as The Forgiving Kind, The Moonshiner’s Daughter, and the Southeastern Library Association Award-winning novel, The Road to Bittersweet. Her most recent work is the novel The Saints of Swallow Hill. Born and raised in Raleigh, she stayed close to her hometown for much of her life, and now lives just an hour away in Dunn, North Carolina. DonnaEverhart.com
JUDY GOLDMAN
Judy is the award-winning author of seven books – three memoirs, two novels, and two collections of poetry. Her new memoir, Child, published in May 2022, was named a Katie Couric Media Must-Read Book for 2022. Together: A Memoir of a Marriage and a Medical Mishap, was named one of the best books of 2019 by Real Simple magazine and received a starred review from Library Journal. Her work has appeared in USA Today, Washington Post, and Charlotte Observer, among others. She lives in Charlotte, North Carolina. JudyGoldman.com
PAUL JONES
In 2019, a manuscript of Paul Jones’ poems crashed into the moon, carried by Israel’s Beresheet lander. In 2021, he was inducted into the NC State Computer Science Hall of Fame and his book, Something Wonderful, from Redhawk Publishing debuted. His chapbook, What the Welsh and Chinese Have in Common, is now hard to find. Jones has published poems in Poetry, Hudson Review, Red Fez, North Carolina Literary Review, and Broadkill Review as well as in cookbooks, travel anthologies, in collections about passion and love. http:/smalljones.com
KELLY KAZEK*
Kelly Kazek is an award-winning journalist, humor columnist, and author. She writes two series of children’s books for It’s a Southern Thing. Her first series of books, including Y is for Y’all and No Hissy Fits, celebrates Southern culture in a fun way that kids and grownups love. Her second series began in May 2022 with the release of Mo Possum is Awesome: A Southern Critters Book. Kazek has also authored two humor collections for adults and nine books of regional history. She lives near Huntsville, Alabama. KellyKazek.com
CHARLIE LOVETT
An On the Same Page veteran, Lovett broke through as a fiction writer with The Bookman’s Tale, a New York Times bestseller and Barnes & Noble Recommends selection. The Lost Book of the Grail followed, and then his most recent novel, Escaping Dreamland. Prior to his fiction books, Love wrote Lewis Carroll: Formed by Faith, and Love, Ruth, a book about his mother. He is from Winston-Salem and splits his time between there and Kingham, England. CharlieLovett.com
STACY MCANULTY*
As a children’s book author, McAnulty has written over 30 books, including the Indie bestselling middle-grade novel, The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl, and the 2017 Ezra Jack Keats New Writer Honor Book, Excellent Ed. Other picture books by her include Earth! My First 4.54 Billion Years and Moon! Earth’s Best Friend, which are part of the popular Our Universe Series. Her first nonfiction book for teens and tweens was Save the People! Halting Human Extinction. Originally from upstate New York, she lives in Kernersville, North Carolina. StacyMcAnulty.com
MARK POWELL
Powell is the author of seven novels, including Small Treasons and the new Lioness. He has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Breadloaf and Sewanee Writers’ Conferences, and twice has received fellowships from the Fulbright Foundation to Slovakia and Romania. He directs the Creative Writing Program at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina.
TERRY ROBERTS
Roberts has authored four celebrated novels. A Short Time to Stay Here won the Willie Morris Prize for Southern Fiction and the Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Fiction; That Bright Land won the Thomas Wolfe Literary Award, the James Still Award for Writing About the Appalachian South, and the Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Fiction. The Holy Ghost Speakeasy and Revival, and My Mistress’ Eyes are Raven Black were finalists for prestigious awards. His fifth novel, The Sky Club, debuted in July 2022. He is the director of the National Paideia Center, and lives in Asheville, North Carolina with his wife, Lynn. TerryRobertsAuthor.com
ANNE SHELBY*
Anne Shelby is the author of books for children and adults including The Adventures of Molly Whuppie and Other Appalachian Folktales. Among her award-winning books for children are Homeplace, We Keep a Store, and The Man Who Lived in a Hollow Tree, based on an eastern Kentucky legend passed down in her family. Her work has appeared in Appalachian Heritage, Appalachian Journal, Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel, Talking Appalachian, Confronting Stereotypes: Backtalk from an American Region, and Bloodroot: Appalachian Women Writers Reflections on Place. She lives near Oneida in southeastern Kentucky.
ED SOUTHERN
Ed Southern is the author of Fight Songs: A Story of Love & Sports in a Complicated South, a finalist for the 2022 Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance’s (SIBA) Southern Book Prize. His stories and essays have appeared in The Bitter Southerner, the North Carolina Literary Review, The New Decameron, The Dirty Spoon, storySouth, and elsewhere. Since 2008 he has been the executive director of the nonprofit North Carolina Writers’ Network. He is married to Jamie Rogers Southern. They make their home in Winston-Salem. EdSouthern.com
JAMIE SOUTHERN
Jamie Rogers Southern is the Executive Director of Bookmarks, a literary arts nonprofit in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She previously served for ten years as Operations Director of Bookmarks, expanding the organization’s programming and outreach to include a nonprofit independent bookstore. She currently serves on the board of the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA) and the Downtown Winston-Salem Partnership. She lives in Winston-Salem with her husband, Ed Southern, and their children.
SHEILA TURNAGE*
Turnage is a storyteller at heart, best known for her Newbery Honor book Three Times Lucky, and the award-winning Mo & Dale Mysteries series. The Ghosts of Tupelo Landing represented North Carolina at the National Book Festival, hosted by the Library of Congress. Her poetry collection, Just Off Half-Moon Road, came out in 2021. She lives in eastern North Carolina with her husband, Rodney, a bossy dog named Callie, chickens, a lonely goose, and two sweet-faced goats. Her latest book, Island of Spies, for middle grade readers, will be out this autumn. SheilaTurnage.com
*These authors are sponsored by the American Rescue Plan: Humanities Grants for Libraries, which is an initiative of the American Library Association made possible with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.