Thomas More College in Crestview Hills, Ky., continues its Appalachian Writers Series, a collaboration involving Joseph Beth Booksellers/Crestview Hills, the Urban Appalachian Council and other community organizations, with literary programs by award-winning authors Cathy Smith Bowers,  Crystal E. Wilkinson and Jeanne Bryner. The 2013 Appalachian Writers Series is a project of Thomas More College’s Creative Writing Vision Program, supported by a grant from the John A. Schroth Family Charitable Trust, PNC Bank, Trustee. Ohio programs are funded in part by a grant to the Urban Appalachian Council from the Ohio Arts Council. The following programs are free and open to the public:

Thomas More College Appalachian Writers Series February 2013

Cathy Smith Bowers, Poet Laureate of North Carolina from 2010-2012, is the author of four books of poetry, most recently Like Shining from Shook Foil: Selected Poems (Press 53, 2010). Her poems have appeared widely in publications such as The Atlantic Monthly, The Georgia Review, Poetry, The Southern Review, and The Kenyon Review.  Author Ron Rash has said of her work, “Bowers’ poetic gifts are immense and, as these poems show, so is her heart.” Born and raised in the small mill town of Lancaster, S.C., Cathy served for many years as poet-in-residence at Queens University of Charlotte where she received the 2002 JB Fuqua Distinguished Educator Award. She now teaches in the Queens low-residency MFA program and at Wofford College in Spartanburg, S.C., and leads workshops and retreats throughout the U.S. Programs with Bowers include:

Friday, February 15, 6-9 p.m.  – Cincinnati –Cincinnati Museum Center – Appalachian Culture Fest Literary Celebration co-sponsored by the Appalachian Community Development Association featuring former North Carolina Poet Laureate Cathy Smith Bowers andother writers published in Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel, literary journal of the Southern Appalachian Writers Cooperative. Readers also include Thomas More College Professor Sherry Cook Stanforth and Writer-in-Residence Pauletta Hansel. Contact: Omope Carter Daboiku at [email protected].

Sunday, February 17, 2-5 pm  – Crestview Hills, KY,- Thomas More College—Caden Blincoe Outloud Festival Former North Carolina Poet Laureate Cathy Smith Bowers headlines this annual celebration of writers and writing featuring some of the best writers from the Ohio Valley region—and beyond! Dr. Sherry Cook Stanforth at [email protected].

Monday, February 18, 7 pm – Crestview Hills, KY- Joseph Beth Booksellers—Poetry reading and book signing by former North Carolina Poet Laureate Cathy Smith Bowers. Bowers will read from and sign her newest book Like Shining from Shook Foil: Selected Poems. Contact (859) 912-7860 or visit www.josephbeth.com.

Thomas More College Appalachian Writers Series March 2013

Crystal E. Wilkinson is founding member of the Affrilachian Poets, a writing collective based in Lexington, Kentucky. She is the author of two books, Blackberries, Blackberries (2000) and Water Street (2002), both published by Toby Press. Water Street was finalist for both the prestigious Orange Prize and Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Foundation Legacy Award in fiction. Blackberries, Blackberries was named Best Debut Fiction by Today’s Librarian magazine. Crystal Wilkinson’s short stories have been described as “story poems” and are widely published in national and regional journals and anthologies. She is a faculty member in Spalding University’s low-residency MFA writing program and writer in residence for Morehead State University. She and her partner artist, Ronald Davis, are founders and editors of Mythium: A Journal of Contemporary Literature, celebrating writers of color and the cultural voice and owners of the independent bookstore, The Wild Fig, in Lexington, Ky.

Wednesday, March 13, 7 p.m. – Crestview Hills, KY- Joseph Beth Booksellers—Fiction reading and book signing by award-winning author Crystal E. Wilkinson. Affrilachian writer Wilkinson will read both new work and selections from her short story collections  Blackberries, Blackberries and Water Street. Contact (859) 912-7860 or visit www.josephbeth.com.

Thomas More College Appalachian Writers Series April 2013

Jeanne Bryner is a poet, nurse and creative writing teacher who has also written plays, stories, nonfiction and children’s literature. Her most recent book, Smoke, winner of an American Journal of Nursing 2012 book award, contains “poems that use nursing as a lens through which to view the world of healthcare as well as the lives of families, communities, and the art of writing.” (Cortney Davis of The Heart’s Truth: Essays on the Art of Nursing). Other works include Breathless; Blind Horse: Poems; Eclipse: Stories; Tenderly Lift Me: Nurses Honored, Celebrated and Remembered; No Matter How Many Windows, winner of Working Class Studies’ Tillie Olsen Award for Creative Writing; The Wedding of Miss Meredith Mouse (for children); and Foxglove Canyon, a play about caring for the elderly. Jeanne was born in Appalachia and grew up in Newton Falls, Ohio, where she still resides.

Monday, April 8. noon – Crestview Hills, KY- Thomas More College—Staged Reading of Foxglove Canyon Set in a small nursing home, Jeanne Bryner’s Foxglove Canyon focuses on the lives of residents and a nurse near the end of her career. Contact: Dr. Sherry Cook Stanforth at [email protected].

Tuesday, April 9, 7 p.m. Cincinnati –Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County Main Library – Poetry in the Garden Series.  Award-winning poet and nurse Jeanne Bryner and Thomas More College’s Dr. Sherry Cook Stanforth, poet, fiction writer, singer/songwriter and professor, read together at the Library’s annual celebration of Poetry Month. Followed by an open mic reading. Contact: David Siders in the Popular Library Department at 513-369-6919 or visit www.cincinnatilibrary.org/programs.

Wednesday, April. 10, 7 p.m. – Crestview Hills, KY- Joseph Beth Booksellers—Poetry reading and book signing by award winning poet and nurse Jeanne Bryner. Bryner will read from her most recent book, Smoke, winner of an American Journal of Nursing 2012 book award. Contact (859) 912-7860 or visit www.josephbeth.com.

Thursday, April 11, 6:45 p.m. – Crestview Hills, KY—Thomas More College—Words Celebration – Award-winning author and nurse Jeanne Bryner is the featured reader at this annual celebration of Words, Thomas More College’s official literary arts magazine of the College, is a collection of students’ original stories, poems, photographs and artwork. Dr. Sherry Cook Stanforth at [email protected].