Staff

2012 Appalachian Writers Workshop Staff:

Nikky Finney

Nikky Finney, the 2011 National Book Award Winner for Poetry for her book, Head Off & Split, was born in South Carolina, within listening distance of the sea. A child of activists, she came of age during the Civil Rights and Black Arts Movements. At Talladega College, nurtured by Hale Woodruff’s Amistad murals, Finney began to understand the powerful synergy between art and history. Finney has authored four books of poetry: Head Off & Split (2011); The World is Round (2003); Rice (1995); and On Wings Made of Gauze (1985). A professor of English and creative writing at the University of Kentucky, Finney also authored Heartwood (1997), edited The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South (2007) and co-founded the Affrilachian Poets, a writing collective based in Lexington, Kentucky.

C. Michael Curtis is senior fiction editor for The Atlantic Monthly. He is an accomplished teacher and writer. He has taught creative writing, southern literature, publishing, editing and other subjects. He and his wife, Betsy Cox, presently share the John C. Cobb Chair in Humanities at Wofford College in South Carolina. He has an extensive publishing career with God: Stories and Faith: Stories being his two most recent anthologies. He has also published essays, articles, reviews and poems.

Elizabeth Cox has published four novels, a collection of short stories and poetry. Her short story, “Third of July,” was chosen for The O. Henry Award Collection. In April 2011 she was awarded the Robert Penn Warren Award by the Fellowship of Southern Writers. She has taught creative writing at Duke University, MIT and for 10 years at the Bennington Writing Seminars. She presently shares the John C. Cobb Chair of Humanities with her husband, C. Michael Curtis.

Joyce Dyer teaches creative writing at Hiram College in Ohio. She is the author of four books, including her most recent, Goosetown (2010) and editor of Bloodroot. She has published essays in magazines such as North American Review and in a wide assortment of anthologies. In 2009 she won the David B. Saunders Award in Creative Nonfiction. Dyer is at work on a book about abolitionist John Brown, who was raised in Hudson, Ohio, where Dyer has lived for 30 years.

R. T. Smith is Writer-in-Residence at Washington and Lee University, where he edits Shenandoah. His poetry collections include Messenger and Outlaw Style, both winners of the Library of Virginia Book of the Year Award. He has two books of fiction, Uke Rivers Delivers and Sherburne. Smith’s work has appeared in the best American series of poetry, short stories and mystery stories. He has received Governor’s Awards in the Arts from Alabama and Virginia. He also teaches in the Converse College MFA Program.

Pamela Duncan’s first novel, Moon Women, was a Southeast Booksellers Association Award Finalist, and her second novel, Plant Life, won the 2003 Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Fiction. She is the recipient of the 2007 James Still Award for Writing about the Appalachian South, awarded by the Fellowship of Southern Writers. Her third novel, The Big Beautiful, was published in March 2007. She teaches at Western Carolina University and is currently at work on a new novel.

Silas House is the author of five best-selling novels including his most recent, Same Sun Here (2012), as well as the nonfiction work, Something’s Rising (with Jason Howard), and three produced plays. In 2010 he edited the posthumous manuscript of James Still, Chinaberry. He has received many prestigious awards including the James Still Prize for Special Achievement from the Fellowship of Southern Writers. Although he is an acclaimed fiction writer, he has made most of his living from nonfiction writing. He presently serves as Interim Director of the Loyal Jones Appalachian Center at Berea College.

George Ella Lyon is originally from Harlan County, Kentucky. She has published award-winning books for readers of all ages. Recent titles include She Let Herself Go (poetry), Holding On to Zoe (YA novel), “Which Side Are You On?” The Story of a Song, and All the Water in the World (picture books). Lyon works as a freelance writer and teacher based in Lexington, where she lives with her husband, writer and musician Steve Lyon.

George Singleton has published four collections of short stories, two novels, and one book on writing advice. A new collection of stories, Stray Decorum, will be released in September. His fiction has appeared in numerous magazines including The Atlantic Monthly and has been widely anthologized with 11 appearances in the annual New Stories from the South. He was a Guggenheim Fellow in 2009 and received the 2011 Hillsdale Award from the Fellowship of Southern Writers.

Robert Morgan is the author of 14 books of poetry, most recently, Terroir (2011). He has also published eight works of fiction, including Gap Creek, (1999), a New York Times bestseller and Oprah Book Club selection. A sequel, The Road to Gap Creek, will be published in 2013. In addition he has published two books of nonfiction, Boone: A Biography and Lions of the West. He has received many awards, including the Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts & Letters. A native of Western North Carolina, he has taught at Cornell University since 1971.

Cathy Smith Bowers is the current Poet Laureate of the state of North Carolina. She is the author of five collections of poetry including: The Love That Ended Yesterday in Texas; Traveling in Time of Danger; A Book of Minutes; The Candle I Hold Up To See You; and Like Shining From Shook Foil. Her poems have appeared widely in publications such as The Atlantic Monthly, The Georgia Review, Poetry, The Southern Review and The Kenyon Review. She served for many years as Poet-in-Residence at Queens College in Charlotte, North Carolina and now teaches in the Queens low-residency MFA program and at Wofford College.

Robert Gipe is from Kingsport, Tennessee. Since 1997, he has directed the Appalachian Program at Southeast Kentucky Community & Technical College in Harlan County, Kentucky. He has also coordinated community-based arts programming including the highly acclaimed community play “Higher Ground.” His fiction has appeared in Appalachian Heritage and Still. He will be in charge of the participant readings and do most of the introductions for the evening readings.

Gurney Norman served as Poet Laureate of Kentucky in 2009 and 2010. For the past several years, he has been Senior Writer-in-Residence for the workshop, following in the footsteps of long-time Senior Writer-in-Residence, the late James Still. He has been a mentor to numerous aspiring writers for the past 40 years. He teaches creative writing at the University of Kentucky. He is an invaluable part of the gathering at the forks of Troublesome Creek.