Meet the Authors
SARA JOHNSON ALLEN
Sara Johnson Allen was raised (mostly) in North Carolina. Her debut novel, Down Here We Come Up, winner of the Big Moose Prize from Black Lawrence Press, was released in August 2023. A recipient of the Marianne Russo Award for Emerging Writers by the Key West Literary Seminar, the Stockholm Writers Festival First Pages Prize, an artistic grant from the Elizabeth George Foundation, and MacDowell fellowships, her work has appeared in PANK Magazine, SmokeLong Quarterly, and Reckon Review among others. When she is not teaching or shuttling her three kids around, she writes about place and how it shapes us. www.sarajallen.com
MILDRED KICONCO BARYA
Mildred Kiconco Barya is a North Carolina-based writer and poet of East African descent. Winner of the 2025 Jacobs/Jones African American Literary Prize, and the 2020 Linda Flowers Literary Award, she teaches and lectures globally and is the author of four full-length poetry collections, including The Animals of My Earth School (Terrapin Books), a 2024 Eric Hoffer Award Honorable Mention, and Brittle Paper Notable African Book of 2023. Her fifth collection, Hands in Clay, will be published in Fall 2025 by Serving House Books. Her prose, hybrids, and poems have appeared in the New England Review, The Cincinnati Review, Shenandoah, Tin House, The Forge, and elsewhere. Barya serves as the Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poet for the North Carolina Poetry Society and coordinates the Poetrio Reading events at Malaprop’s Independent Bookstore/Café. She blogs here: www.mildredbarya.com
GARY CARDEN
Gary Carden is a celebrated Appalachian storyteller, playwright, and author whose work has earned him some of North Carolina’s highest literary honors. Raised in a storytelling tradition rooted in family gatherings and mountain culture, Carden has channeled a lifetime of lived experience into award-winning literature. His collection Mason Jars in the Floodwon the Appalachian Writers Association Book of the Year, and his earlier book, Belled Buzzards, Hucksters and Grieving Spirits, co-authored with Nina Anderson, further established his voice in Appalachian storytelling. Carden is also an acclaimed playwright, with works such as The Raindrop Waltz, Birdell, and The Prince of Dark Corners—the latter adapted for PBS—garnering national attention. In 2012, he received the North Carolina Award for Literature and holds an honorary doctorate from Western Carolina University. Through stories on the page, stage, screen, and even canvas, Gary Carden continues to preserve and celebrate the cultural heritage of the mountain South.
GEORGANN EUBANKS
Always a Festival favorite, Georgann Eubanks is a writer, teacher, and documentary producer whose work spans poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. Her debut poetry collection, Rural Astronomy, and her newest nonfiction book, The Fabulous Ordinary: Discovering the Natural Wonders of the Wild South, were both published in 2025. Georgann directed the Duke Writers Workshop for two decades and later founded the Table Rock Writers Workshop, held each fall in the Blue Ridge Mountains. She is a frequent speaker on North Carolina history and literature and currently serves as the literary executor and executive director of the Paul Green Foundation. Georgann divides her time between Carrboro and Little Switzerland, North Carolina. www.georganneubanks.net
DARREN FARRELL
Darren Farrell is an award-winning author and illustrator of children’s books, including Dandelion Magic, Give This Book Away, and Thank You, Octopus. His book Letter Town inspired the hit Audible series Letter Town Detective. He will visit Blue Ridge, Mountain View, and Westwood Elementary Schools as part of the Arts in Eduction program. darrenfarrell.com
JIM GULLEDGE
Jim Gulledge, author of Green Forest, Red Earth, Blue Sea, earned an AB in Christian education from Pfeiffer University, an MA in English from Clemson University, and a DMin in theological studies from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. He has participated in the Adult Development Institute at Harvard University, the Fulbright German Administrators Exchange Program, and the C. S Lewis Summer Residence program in Oxford, England. Gulledge is also the author of A Poor Man’s Supper, a novella included in the North Carolina Collection at UNC-Chapel Hill and the W. L. Eury Appalachian Collection at Appalachian State University. Current residents of Southern Pines, North Carolina, Jim and his wife, Linda, enjoy visiting with their four children and son-in-law and daily life with their miniature schnauzer, Luka.
RICHARD HELMS
Richard Helms is a prolific and award-winning mystery writer based in Charlotte, North Carolina. A former forensic psychologist and college professor, Helms has written more than twenty novels and dozens of short stories, many of which have appeared in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine and anthologies like The Best American Mystery Stories. His work has received numerous accolades, including the Private Eye Writers of America Shamus Award, the ITW Thriller Award, the Derringer Award, and the Macavity Award. A past president of the Southeast chapter of Mystery Writers of America, Helms retired from teaching in 2016 to write full time. He and his wife Elaine have two grown children. www.richardhelms.net
LEIGH ANN HENION
Leigh Ann Henion is the New York Times bestselling author of Night Magic: Adventures Among Glowworms, Moon Gardens, and Other Marvels of the Dark and Phenomenal: A Hesitant Adventurer’s Search for Wonder in the Natural World. She is a former Alicia Patterson Fellow, and her work has been supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Henion lives in Boone, North Carolina. leighannhenion.com
JANE HICKS
A native of Upper East Tennessee, Jane Hicks is an award-winning poet and quilter. Her debut poetry collection, Blood and Bone Remember: Poems from Appalachia, won the Appalachian Writers Association Poetry Book of the Year and was nominated for the Weatherford Award. Her work has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including Shenandoah, Appalachian Journal, and the Southern Poetry Anthology series. Her literary quilts have illustrated the works of Jo Carson, Sharyn McCrumb, and Silas House, and were featured in Blue Ridge Country Magazine. A retired teacher, Jane’s later poetry books—Driving with the Dead and The Safety of Small Things—also received critical acclaim, with the former winning the AWA Book of the Year (2015) and the latter published by the University Press of Kentucky in 2024.
NEAL HUTCHESON
Neal Hutcheson is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and author. His films are typically centered on regional cultures in transition and several of them were made in Southern Appalachia, including the PBS program Mountain Talk (2002), the Emmy award–winning The Last One (2009), and Gary Carden—Storyteller (2023). His first book, The Moonshiner Popcorn Sutton, received the Grand Prize from the Writer’s Digest Book Awards, the National Indie Excellence Award, the New Generation Book Award, and the Outstanding Book Award from the Independent Publisher Book Awards. He wrote an introduction and is the editor of Gary Carden’s Stories I Lived to Tell from UNC Press. www.nealhutcheson.com
MEGAN MIRANDA
Megan Miranda is the New York Times bestselling author of All the Missing Girls; The Perfect Stranger; The Last House Guest, a Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick; The Girl from Widow Hills; Such a Quiet Place; The Last to Vanish; The Only Survivors, and Daughter of Mine. She has also written several books for young adults. She grew up in New Jersey, graduated from MIT, and lives in North Carolina with her husband and two children. Follow @MeganLMiranda on Instagram, @AuthorMeganMiranda on Facebook, or visit MeganMiranda.com.
Her next book, You Belong Here, will be published on July 29, 2025, from Simon & Schuster/Marysue Rucci Books.
KELLY MUSTIAN
Kelly Mustian is the USA Today bestselling author of The Girls in the Stilt House and The River Knows Your Name. She is the recipient of the Mississippi Library Association’s 2023 Author Award for Fiction, and The Girls in the Stilt Housewas shortlisted for the 2022 Crook’s Corner Book Prize for best debut novel set in the American South. Her work has appeared in numerous literary journals and commercial magazines. Originally from Mississippi, she currently lives in North Carolina. www.kellymustian.com
ELAINE NEIL ORR
Elaine Neil Orr is the author of six books, including the memoir, Gods of Noonday: A White Girl’s African Life, and the novels, A Different Sun and Swimming Between Worlds, which was a finalist for the 2019 Phillip H. McMath Post-Publication Book Award in Fiction. Dancing Woman is her third novel. She is winner of the 2023 John Ehle Prize, North Carolina Literary Review; 2021 Denny C. Plattner Award in Creative Writing, Appalachian Review; and winner of the Alumni Outstanding Research Award, NCSU, 2019. She was the Campbell-Stripling Distinguished Writer in Residence, Wesleyan College, Macon, Ga., March, 2016 and has been honored by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the North Carolina Arts Council, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. She serves on the faculty of English at N.C. State University as well as the faculty of the Naslund-Mann School of Creative and Professional Writing, Spalding University. Her numerous works of short fiction and creative non-fiction appear in The Missouri Review, Shenandoah, storySouth, Blackbird, Image, and Southern Cultures, among other places. She lives in Raleigh, NC, with her husband, Andy, and their dog, Sam. www.elaineneilorr.com
PHILLIP SHABAZZ
Phillip Shabazz is a poet, author, and teaching artist whose work explores culture, community, and the human spirit. Known for his dynamic poetry and inspiring creative writing workshops, he engages students and audiences across North Carolina. He will visit Ashe County High School as part of the Arts in Education program. flamesinthefireps.com
TIMOTHY SILVER
Tim Silver is professor emeritus of history at Appalachian State University where he taught American history for 37 years. As a college professor, he authored three books, including Mount Mitchell and the Black Mountains: An Environmental History of the Highest Peaks in Eastern America (University of North Carolina Press, 2003) which won the 2003 Old North State Award for the best work of non-fiction by a North Carolina author. He is co-author of An Environmental History of the Civil War (University of North Carolina Press, 2020), a book selected as a 2021 Choice Outstanding Academic Title. Tim retired from Appalachian State in 2021 and now works as a free-lance writer of creative non-fiction. Death in Briar Bottom is his first book since leaving academic life and his first foray into the true crime genre. An avid outdoorsman, Tim spends his spare time hiking, biking, camping, and flyfishing in the Appalachian mountains. He and his wife live in Boone, North Carolina.
MATTHEW VOLLMER
Matthew Vollmer is an award-winning author of fiction and nonfiction whose work blends innovation with emotional depth. He is the author of six books, including the story collections Gateway to Paradise and Future Missionaries of America, and essay collections Permanent Exhibit and This World Is Not Your Home. His writing has appeared widely in literary journals such as The Paris Review, Tin House, Virginia Quarterly Review, The Sun, and Best American Essays. Vollmer has also edited several anthologies, including Fakes, co-edited with David Shields, and A Book of Uncommon Prayer. A recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and the Sturm Award for Creative Arts, he is a professor in the MFA in Creative Writing program at Virginia Tech. His work is known for its imaginative forms and its exploration of the complexities of everyday life. matthewvollmer.com