DEBORAH-ZENHA ADAMS is an award-winning author of novels, short fiction, creative non-fiction, and poetry. She served as executive editor of Oconee Spirit Press for ten years and is currently a reader for Boomerlit. You're invited to visit her website to read some of her work and to learn about workshops she conducts: www.Deborah-Adams.com.

K.B. BALLENTINE’s eighth collection, Spirit of Wild, launched in March 2023 with Blue Light Press. Her earlier books can be found with Iris Press, Blue Light Press, Middle Creek Publishing, and Celtic Cat Publishing. Published in North Dakota Quarterly, Atlanta Review, Haight-Ashbury Literary Journal, and others, her work also appears in anthologies including I Heard a Cardinal Sing (2022), The Strategic Poet (2021), Pandemic Evolution (2021), and Carrying the Branch: Poets in Search of Peace (2017). Learn more about K.B. Ballentine at www.kbballentine.com.

JERRY BUCHANAN lives in Southern Appalachia and writes to establish a sense of his own creative voice and to connect with others. His published poems appear in Quill and Parchment, American Diversity Report, and Black Moon Magazine. He explores ways to hone his writing skills with two small groups of Appalachian poets entitled The Seasoned Writers’ Group and the Poetry Society of TN Critique Group.
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HOWARD S. CARMAN, JR. published his first poetry collection (But Now I See: Rhymes and Reflections) in 2017. His poetry has since won awards from Poetry Society of Tennessee and the National Federation of State Poetry Societies, and appears in Tennessee Voices Anthology, We Were Not Alone: A Community Building Artworks Anthology, and Black Moon Magazine. Howard lives with his wife, Karen, in Blountville, TN and serves as Treasurer and Membership Chair of Poetry Society of Tennessee.

GAIL DENHAM is an award-winning poet whose work has been published in such publications as Quill & Parchment, Poetic Voices, Highland Park (on Facebook) and Swallow's Nest. Recent state society contest wins include 1st place for "Been There" (Tennessee), 2nd place for "No Curtains" (Indiana), 2nd place for "We Three" and “Creation” (Arkansas), and many others.

DANITA DODSON is an educator, literary scholar, and the author of two poetry collections, Trailing the Azimuth (2021) and The Medicine Woods (2022). Her third collection, Between Gone and Everlasting, is forthcoming in 2024. Dodson’s poems, prose, and scholarly articles have appeared in Salvation South, Critique, Amethyst Review, Jarfly Poetry Magazine, and elsewhere. She is a native of Sneedville, Tennessee, where she hikes and explores local history connected to the wilderness. Though retired from teaching fulltime, she works occasionally as an adjunct English instructor at Walters State Community College. Read more at www.danitadodson.com.
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GREER LITTON FOX, Ph.D. retired as University of Tennessee Distinguished Professor Emerita after a 40+ year career in higher education. She enjoys volunteering each summer with the Forest Conservancy in the White River National Forest in Colorado. Her stories and poems often highlight the experiences of people in the wilderness.  She is active with the PST-Knoxville poetry group and is currently working on a book about the adventures of two coyote brothers.

SARA GIPSON was raised in Williamson County, Tennessee, and published her first poem at
age six. Since then, she’s been published in multiple magazines, journals, and anthologies. Sara
has received awards in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, photography, and art. A member of National
League of American Pen Women and National Federation of State Poetry Societies, she often
serves as contest judge and speaker and is a Board member for Arkansas Writers Conference. Sara lives in Arkansas.

PATRICIA HOPE’s award-winning writing has appeared in the Anthology of Appalachian Writers, Guideposts’ Blessings in Disguise, Chicken Soup for the Soul, Southern Writers, The Writer, Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel, Dog Throat Journal, Spirit Fire Review, Artemis, and many newspapers, magazines, and anthologies. She has edited two poetry anthologies. She lives in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
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DR. EMORY D. JONES is a retired English teacher who has taught in high school and in several community colleges. He has 655 credits including publication in such journals as Writer’s Digest, Smokey Blue Literary and Arts Magazine, The Avocet, The Light Ekphrastic, Big Muddy; A Journal of the Mississippi River, Three Line Poetry, Auroras & Blossoms, Pegasus, Halcyon Days Magazine, Falling Star Magazine, Pasques Petals, 50 Haikus, The Cumberland River Review, The Delta Poetry Review, Calliope, Deep South Magazine, Modern Poetry Quarterly Review, and Encore: Journal of the NFSPS.  He lives with his wife in Iuka, Mississippi.

LISA KAMOLNICK explores humanity, the natural world, and spaces between and beyond. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Tennessee Voices, Black Moon Magazine, Heartwood Lit Mag, Encore, Women Speak, and others. Lisa lives in northeast Tennessee’s highlands and serves as President for Poetry Society of Tennessee. She enjoys the brush of color at day’s bookends and the endorphin rush of a good laugh. Learn more at lisakamolnick.com

 NATALIE KIMBELL grew up in Sequatchie County, Tennessee. She has over forty years’ experience teaching English and theater arts there. Her work appears in Pine Mountain Sand and Gravel, Mildred Haun Review, Anthology of Appalachian Writers, Artemis, Tennessee Voices, 23 Tales: Appalachian Ghost Stories, Legends and Other Mysteries, and Women Speak.  Her first poetry chapbook, On Phillips Creek, will be published by Finishing Line Press in August 2024.

SEAN KYTE has a bachelor's degree in English from East Tennessee State University, along with an MFA in Creative Writing from Eastern Washington University. They received the McClellan Award for writing ability from ETSU in 2013 and recently finished a novel. Their writing blends beautiful landscapes with various topics regarding identity, relationships, and our place among nature.

RON LANDS is a retired hematologist and Professor of Medicine at University of Tennessee Graduate School of Medicine in Knoxville. He practiced medicine for many years near the community in East Tennessee where he grew up. He was privileged to treat lifelong friends and a few relatives who schooled him in the practice of Narrative Medicine. He has published short stories, poems, and essays in literary and medical journals. His stories and poems come from those experiences.

LAURA GUNNELLS MILLER is a writer from southern Appalachia, where she has been a longtime teacher and community volunteer. A graduate from University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, she studied literature and creative writing. Her recent poetry appears in Salvation South, Artemis, Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel, Abyss & Apex, American Diversity Report, Tennessee Voices, and elsewhere.

SHERRY POFF grew up in the hills of West Virginia. She now lives and writes in and around Chattanooga, Tennessee. Sherry holds an MA in Writing from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and is a member of the Chattanooga Writers’ Guild. Her stories and poems have appeared in numerous online and print publications including Mildred Haun Review, Anthology of Appalachian Writers, and Pine Mountain Sand and Gravel.​

​SARAH CUMMINS SMALL lives in Alcoa, TN. She taught creative writing, literature, and composition for over 20 years to students from elementary school to college. Her poetry has appeared in Yalobusha Review, Willow Review, Appalachia Bare, Willawaw Journal, among others, as well as in the anthologies Breathing the Same Air and Migrants and Stowaways. She holds an MA in English/Creative Writing from Iowa State University.

​CLAUDIA STANEK’s work has been turned into a libretto, has been part of an art exhibition, and has been translated into Polish. Her poems have been published in her chapbook Language You Refuse to Learn as well as in Cutleaf, Ekstasis, Solum, Book of Matches, Atticus Review, and her forthcoming chapbook Beneath Occluded Shine (Finishing Line Press, 2025). She holds an MFA from Bennington College. Claudia lives in East Tennessee with her rescued dogs.

​CYNTHIA STORRS teaches and writes near Nashville, TN.  Educated in the US and UK, she has served on the board of Poetry West (CO), Pikes Peak Poet Laureate Committee, and Pikes Peak Arts Council, which awarded her a grant for promoting poetry in the region. Her poetry has been published in anthologies, magazines, and on-line. She has also published academic articles on bilingualism, biculturalism, and acculturation. Cynthia loves art history, theatre, landscape painting, and chocolate.

​RUSSELL H. STRAUSS is a native Tennessean and a graduate of Memphis State University (now University of Memphis). After teaching school for thirteen years, he worked 37 years for the Tennessee Department of Labor. He wrote poetry in his youth and returned to poetry in the 1990's after the death of his wife, joining PST in 1995. Since then, he has served four separate two-year terms as PST president and a two-year term as president of the National Federation of State Poetry Societies.