Poems

November 9, 2012 Ted Olson, a former Fulbright Senior Scholar, is the author of several books, including a previous collection of poetry, Breathing in Darkness, and a study of Appalachian culture, Blue Ridge Folklife. He has edited numerous books, including collections of literary work by James Still, Sarah Orne Jewett, and Sherwood Anderson; and the award-winning The Bristol Sessions: Writings about the Big Bang of Country Music. Olson served as associate editor for The Encyclopedia of Appalachia and co-editor of A Tennessee Folklore Sampler. In 2012, for his work as a music historian, Olson received two Grammy Award nominations and also the East Tennessee Historical Society’s Regional Excellence in History Award of Distinction. He holds the Ph.D. degree in English from the University of Mississippi, and he teaches at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City. Ted Olson will read from Revelations: Poems on November 11 at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville. The event begins at 2 p.m.

November 2, 2012 Hadley Hury recently retired as college counselor and chair of the department of English at Hutchison School in Memphis; for ten years he also was film critic at the Memphis Flyer. Hury’s 2003 novel, The Edge of the Gulf, received strong national reviews; he followed it with a collection of stories, It’s Not the Heat, in 2007. His poetry and short fiction have appeared in numerous magazines, reviews, and journals including Image, The James Dickey Review, Green Mountains Review, Colorado Review, and Appalachian Heritage, among others. He and his wife live in Rugby, Tennessee.

September 26, 2012 Kory Wells often performs her poetry with her daughter Kelsey, an old-time musician, in an act that’s been called “hillbilly cool” and “moving, fun, spiritual, and sassy.” Decent Pan of Cornbread, the first album by the Murfreesboro duo, is out this fall. Kory is author of the poetry chapbook Heaven Was the Moon (March Street Press). Her novel-in-progress was a William Faulkner competition finalist, and her “standout” nonfiction has been praised by Ladies’ Home Journal. Her work appears in Christian Science Monitor, Ruminate, Rock & Sling, Deep South Magazine, Now & Then, New Southerner, Literary Mama, and other publications. Kory and Kelsey Wells will appear at the Scarritt-Bennett Center in Nashville on September 27 at 7 p.m., and at the twenty-fourth annual Southern Festival of Books, held October 12-14 at Legislative Plaza in Nashville. Both events are free and open to the public.

August 17, 2012 Jeff Hardin, a native of Savannah, Tennessee, is a professor of English at Columbia State Community College. A graduate of Austin Peay State University and the University of Alabama, where he earned an M.F.A. in creative writing, Hardin is the author of two chapbooks, Deep in the Shallows (GreenTower Press) and The Slow Hill Out (Pudding House), as well as one book-length collection, Fall Sanctuary, recipient of the Nicholas Roerich Prize. His poems have appeared in many journals, including The Southern Review, Ploughshares, Poetry Northwest, and Zone 3, among others, and have been featured on The Writer’s Almanac, Poem of the Week, and Verse Daily. Hardin will read from his work at the Scarritt-Bennett Center in Nashville on August 23 at 7 p.m.

July 9, 2012 Jesse Graves teaches writing and literature classes as an assistant professor of English at Johnson City’s East Tennessee State University, where he won a 2012 New Faculty Award from the College of Arts & Sciences. He completed a Ph.D. in English at the University of Tennessee, and an M.F.A. in creative writing from Cornell University. His first poetry collection, Tennessee Landscape with Blighted Pine, was published by Texas Review Press and won the 2011 Weatherford Award in Poetry from Berea College and the Appalachian Studies Association. Other work appears in recent or forthcoming issues of Prairie Schooner, Georgia Review, Appalachian Heritage, and Connecticut Review. Graves will read from the collection at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on July 14 at 3 p.m.

June 1, 2012 Gordon Osing is retired from the writing program at the University of Memphis, where he started The River City Writers Series. He is the author of over a dozen books of both poetry and prose. Tom Carlson taught American literature and creative nonfiction at the University of Memphis for thirty-two years. He is the author of Hatteras Blues. The two will appear together at Burke’s Book Store in Memphis at 5:30 p.m. on June 7 to read from and sign copies of their recent collaboration, a collection of poetry and collage, La Belle Dame. The reading will begin at 6 p.m. Other books by both authors will also be available for signing.